HP, O2 and Virgin Radio to Launch Visual Radio in the UK

July 3, 2006 - With more than 3 million people worldwide listening to the radio on their mobile phone in 2005 , Visual Radio will enhance the consumers experience. With Visual Radio built into your phone, you can still listen to any FM radio station you like. However when you tune in to Virgin Radio, switch Visual Radio on and you will get a completely new kind of radio experience.

This new interactive Visual Radio service is provided over the mobile network to your O2 Visual Radio enabled mobile phone.

James Parton, Head of Music, TV and Radio products at O2 comments, "Radio is a big part of our everyday lives, whether it helps us pass the time on our commute into work, keeps us up to date with the weekly pop charts or gives us breaking news first. The in-built radios in many of our handsets have always been popular with people who are always on the move, but now visual radio lets you really interact whether that is with the actual DJ themselves or downloading ringtones of your favourite songs over the O2 network."

James Cridland, Director of Digital Media at Virgin Radio, "Visual Radio enhances the listening experience and interaction with the station for every listener. It can also give advertisers a more dynamic platform to communicate their messages. Virgin Radio is yet again driving the technological development of the radio medium."

"Nokia is very pleased to see the enormous interest towards Visual Radio," says Tommi Mustonen, General Manager of Nokia's Visual Radio Business. "Visual Radio is now available in the UK for the first time on our Nokia Visual Radio enabled mobile phones."

Visual Radio is sold, marketed and serviced by HP to broadcasters and mobile operators. HP provides the Visual Radio services as a hosted solution, enables and manages the Visual Radio service and download content delivered over the mobile network as well as providing training and technical support.

"Since introducing the Visual Radio service, HP has worked with industry leaders like O2 and Virgin Radio to deliver Visual Radio to listeners around the world," said Debbie Brackeen, director of strategic initiatives, HP. "We look forward to working with our partners to make Visual Radio a success in the UK."