ITV, Blighty's troubled terrestrial broadcaster, has rolled out its new mobile television service -- but the streamed versions of ITV1 and ITV Play are being offered minus commercial breaks because of a battle over rights.
On Tuesday ITV launched the full ITV1 and ITV Play schedules to users of British mobile network 3, offering flagship shows such as "Emmerdale" and talent skein "The X Factor" at the same time as they're airing on ITV1.
Aimed at people 16-34, who tend to be light viewers of ITV, the service will be watched keenly by rivals.
The channels are streaming with no commercials because of a dispute with advertising agencies over whether broadcasters need separate clearances for ads run over digital media such as mobile phones and the Internet.
"We're in discussions with our advertisers about the rights for ads," an ITV spokesman said, "and we are confident that the service will carry a full complement of advertisements soon."
Earlier in the summer, rival Channel 4 had to jettison ads from its broadband-delivered service due to the problem over rights clearance. C4 claimed broadcasting online was merely "an extension of its TV activities."
ITV, which hopes eventually to air ITV2, 3 and 4 to mobiles, is making ITV1 available to subscribers for 99p ($1.90) per day, while ITV Play costs 99¢ a day.
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