3 mobile officially launched its mobile TV service today, offering customers six new channels, including live CNN breaking news and Sky Racing streams.

Rather than utilising the upcoming DVB-H (digital video broadcasting for handhelds) standard, 3 streams the programs to handsets using its third-generation mobile phone networks.

PAYG pricing structure for 3's mobile TV is 50c per two minutes (for most channels), with a monthly cap for each channel. The mobile service is reportedly not meant to replace regular television or compete with pay TV providers.

Sky Racing offers customers a live stream of the pay TV channel, access to 125 race meetings per week, betting tips, odds and results for horse racing, greyhounds and the trots, for $7 per month.

Over 60 percent of 3's 540,000 customers currently use the 3G portal to access content. Since the soft launch of the additional mobile TV channels three weeks ago, more than 147,000 streams have apparently been downloaded to 3 handsets, with the most popular channels being the Cartoon Network and Sky Racing.

Source: CNet.