CES: Sprint, cable providers synch TV, e-mail

LAS VEGAS--Sprint is taking the first steps to offer converged data multimedia services to its cable partners, announcing at CES that it is extending the partnership with two of its applications providers, MobiTV and Seven, to its joint venture with the country’s largest cable providers.

While Sprint has been offering MobiTV’s channel lineup to its customers since 2004, it will now more tightly integrate MobiTV programming and its interface with the Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, and Advance Newhouse’s own cable TV programming. The new mobile TV engine will feature premium channels offered by each cable provider. In addition, each cable provider will get a custom interface reflecting their own programming guide, and the MobiTV application will allow customers to browse show listings and information of cable channels on their mobile phones.

On the e-mail front, Sprint’s cable partners will have access to its consumer e-mail service, powered by Seven. Sprint already provides consumer e-mail services to its customers with third-party e-mail accounts such as those offered by Yahoo and AOL. But with the new service, cable operators can directly synchronize their broadband e-mail services with the Sprint phone.