Those taking part in the BT UK Livetime trial get access to Sky news services, a music channel and 50 radio stations.

BT has drawn up its own designs because no phone maker produces handsets that can decode the digital radio signals used to carry TV pictures.

Testers will get BT Livetime either via a specially-created smartphone or a portable media centre.

The four-month trial began on 20 June and uses Digital Audio Broadcasts to beam popular programmes to mobile phone users.

BT first unveiled its plans for Livetime in early June. It has been forced to produce its own specifications for phones and media centres to be used in the trial because no-one else makes such hardware.

"We're the first company outside of Korea to implement mobile TV using Digital Audio Broadcasting," said Emma Lloyd, chief commercial officer at BT Livetime.

"We're seeding the market with two devices," said Ms Lloyd, "but we very quickly expect that Tier 1 manufacturers will adopt the technology and bring it to wider usage."

The lucky 1,000 users picked to take part in the four-month trial get news from Sky and Sky Sports as well as programmes from the Blaze music channel. The trial area will fall inside the M25 motorway around London.

Also key to the service is an electronic program guide that lets people know what shows and clips are coming up.

"One of the things that's going to drive adoption of mobile broadcast services is its ease of use," said Ms Lloyd, chief commercial officer at BT Livetime. "The guide is just like you get on TV."

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Silent song

Contrary to press reports, the service will not be offering music downloads in the trial or the first commercial phase that begins in early 2006.

"Because it's a broadcast service, it's only going to make sense to distribute the most popular tracks such as top 10s," she said.

Ms Lloyd said the combination of broadcast and more traditional mobile technology was a very good fit.

"The one-to-many aspect in conjunction with the one-to-one type of stuff that's more unique to you makes real sense to consumers," she said.

Livetime will be a data service broadcast on the digital radio spectrum owned and run by national DAB broadcaster Digital One. Livetime has taken over a popular channel, known as D1 Temp, that before now has been broadcasting birdsong.

Soon after the Livetime announcement the birdsong was turned off in preparation for the trial.

One-time BT mobile service O2 has announced a deal with NTL Broadcast (now known as Arqiva) for trials of its own TV-to-mobile service.