ITN Multimedia announces the launch of its streamed 24-hour news channel service and the ITN Weather Channel on Vodafone mobile TV. This is in addition to the services ITN already provides on Vodafone including hot news, regular bulletins, entertainment news and soap updates.

The made-for-mobile News Channel on Vodafone TV is designed for people tuning in with no time to spare. The fast turn around service delivers up-to-date news from the UK and around the world every fifteen minutes, plus financial, sport and showbiz news.

The made-for-mobile Weather Channel, produced in conjunction with the Met Office works in a similar way providing weather information from nine regions round the UK as well as five day forecasts and holiday weather.

ITN Multimedia has pioneered the delivery of video content that is specifically produced and packaged for mobile and multimedia platforms. This is a rapidly expanding part of ITN’s business and an increasingly significant revenue stream.

The new deal further cements ITN’s relationship with Vodafone which it started in 2003 and has grown from text services on 2.5G handsets to the launch of video downloads when Vodafone went in to 3G in 2004.

Nicholas Wheeler, managing director of ITN Multimedia, said: ‘We have had a great long term partnership with Vodafone UK so we are very excited to get our made-for-mobile channels on with them. We are convinced moving images on the move are going to be increasingly popular and we have a great range of content to offer. It is good that Vodafone can see the benefits of serious information content as well as the more traditional light entertainment areas and understand the medium enough to see the value of the made-for-mobile propositions.’

ITN Multimedia recently announced it has partnered with Google in the launch of its innovative Video Store, the first open video marketplace where consumers will be able to buy and rent a wide range of video content.

ITN Multimedia has also signed a deal with MSN to supply news and a variety of entertainment content for its new video channel, 'MSN Video', and is partnering with Blinkx in the launch of its full-service IPTV platform blinkx.tv.

As well as providing up-to-the-minute news content, ITN Multimedia also produces tailored packages of footage from ITN Archive's extensive range of moving imagery. Representing almost 700,000 hours of footage, ITN manages the collections of British Pathé, Reuters, Granada, Channel 4, FOX News and FOX Movietone.