T-Mobile offers fans front-row access to Robbie Williams’ Close Encounters 2006 Tour on their mobile phones with first-ever Tour TV and video live-streaming of concerts

# RW Tour TV on dedicated MobileTV channel provides exclusive footage and insights from the Tour

# Live video streaming of the entire concerts in select markets

# Robbie Williams’ partnership with T-Mobile in association with Sony Ericsson continues to bring fans closer to their favorite popstar and his sold-out tour

07/18/06, As the sold-out Robbie Williams Close Encounters 2006 Tour continues its sweep across Europe, T-Mobile announces its offering of RW Tour TV and live video streaming of concerts to provide fans in its markets with front-row admission to his shows with no ticket necessary.

RW Tour TV
RW Tour TV will bring fans in its European markets closer to their favourite popstar’s concerts with exclusive, previously unreleased footage of Robbie Williams’ onstage performance, backstage and behind-the-scenes insights. Fans will experience a unique view of the shows beyond his exciting performance on stage and will truly feel they are “on the road” with the Tour.

This cutting edge mobile offering will be regularly updated for a total of 13 different shows throughout the European tour. The RW Tour TV program will consist of exclusive footage looped for each show that increases as the Tour progresses. The dedicated RW Tour TV channel is apart of T-Mobile’s MobileTV service and accessible via web’n’walk or under t-zones. Pricing for MobileTV varies per market. For example, in Germany the service costs approximately EUR 7.50 for a monthly MobileTV subscription or EUR 2.00 for 24 hour access and is also available as part of special tariff packages such as Relax XL.

T-Mobile customers in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia can already enjoy the benefits of MobileTV on a large range of 3G devices in each market. The MobileTV service enables customers to access many TV genres including news, sport, music, comedy, youth and entertainment around the clock.

Live Video Streaming
Although the tickets for Robbie Williams’ Close Encounters 2006 Tour sold-out in record-breaking time, T-Mobile customers will have a chance to watch select concerts in their entirety via live video streaming on their mobile phones wherever they are. Shows in Hungary, Germany and Austria will be live video streamed to the countries hosting the concert. On September 19th, the Milton Keynes, UK concert will be live video streamed to Hungary, Germany, Austria and Slovakia. The next best thing to being there, the broadcast concerts will be a front-row view of Robbie Williams on-stage without a second missed, turning mobile phones into mini-concert stadiums.

Because live video streaming is available through the MobileTV service, the pricing is the same. Customers must have UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication Systems) enabled mobile phones to access the service. The MobileTV service uses this streaming technology to transmit pictures and sound.

The live video streaming service has proved especially successful for T-Mobile to bring their customers closer to their favourite events. T-Mobile was the first mobile operator to offer 20 live matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ to its customer’s mobile phones in Germany. Thousands of fans took advantage of the live video streaming proving that customers are embracing the service to gain access to must-see events wherever they are.

Live Video Streaming Dates:
July 19th – Budapest
July 28th – Berlin
August 18th – Vienna
September 19th – Milton Keynes, UK

In July, 2005, Robbie Williams and T-Mobile announced an 18-month partnership in association with Sony Ericsson. This ground-breaking partnership has enabled fans across Europe to enjoy exclusive mobile music content such as pre-releases, unique exposure to Robbie Williams and the perfect reason to start using their mobile phones as true music devices. T-Mobile is continuing to bring fans closer to Robbie Williams as lead sponsor and official mobile operator of his Close Encounters 2006 European Tour.

RW Tour TV is a new TV format that has never been done before by a mobile operator and along with live video streaming of his concerts are two more ‘firsts’ for a partnership of this kind. These are true differentiators for T-Mobile’s MobileTV since the content is not available by any other media and will enable customers to continue to remain close to the European tour.

Contact Information

Christian Schwolow

Head of External Communications

T-Mobile

Contact via E-mail