Turner International Japan and NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest mobile communications company, have formed an alliance making CNN Interactive an information service provider to NTT DoCoMo's i-mode phones. Effective today, users of the i-mode phones can access CNN Mobile content in English or Japanese on a subscription basis, marking the first time that CNN Mobile has offered content in a language other than English.
NTT DoCoMo's i-mode subscribers will be able to choose to receive CNN information in the language they prefer. English-language content will be taken from CNN.com and the Japanese-language content from CNN Interactive's recently launched Japanese Web site, CNN.co.jp. Users can access all information for free until Aug. 1, after which headlines will be free of charge, while full stories will be available for a 300-yen monthly fee. Users will be able to access a wide variety of CNN content, including up-to-the-minute top stories, business news, including market reports, technology, entertainment, health, sports, weather and more.
"Working with NTT DoCoMo furthers our goal to provide high-quality CNN content to users anywhere, anytime and in the most convenient way possible," said Scott Woelfel, president and editor in chief of CNN Interactive. "We are pleased that NTT DoCoMo has chosen CNN Mobile as one of its information service providers and are confident that i-mode subscribers will value the CNN content available to them. CNN Mobile is now available to more than 61 million subscribers worldwide."
"We are delighted that CNN will be offering content on the i-mode portal," said Takeshi Natsuno, executive director of NTT DoCoMo's Gateway Business Department, responsible for the i-mode service. "We believe that our users will benefit greatly from the worldwide content offered by the world's most distinguished media company."
CNN Mobile was the first mobile telephone news and information service available globally with targeted regional content. Launched in February 1999, CNN Mobile began with nine charter sponsors in seven European and Asian countries. CNN Interactive commercially licenses and markets CNN Mobile worldwide.
CNN Mobile leverages CNN's worldwide newsgathering organization, encompassing more than 4,000 news professionals in 37 bureaus and more than 800 broadcast affiliates worldwide. A dedicated team of journalists produces the service from CNN Interactive's newsroom in Atlanta and in CNN's London bureau.
NTT DoCoMo is Japan's largest mobile communications company. As of May 2000, the firm had more than 30 million subscribers. NTT DoCoMo was formed in July 1992 to take over the mobile communications operations and sales of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT). NTT DoCoMo provides nationwide services, including cellular and PHS phone, paging, satellite mobile communications, and maritime and in-flight telephone service. In February 1999, NTT DoCoMo launched its "i-mode" service, which provides continuous connection with the Internet via mobile phones. The number of i-mode subscribers is over 8.2 million (June 28, 2000).
CNN Interactive is responsible for the award-winning news site CNN.com, as well as 11 other Web sites and the distribution of CNN news content via other platforms such as mobile phones and pagers. The CNN Web sites, which include seven non-English language sites, are among the world's leading news and information Web sites and have served more than 660 million page impressions a month in 2000. They served more than 6.7 billion page impressions in 1999.
Turner International is the arm of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS) charged with the sales and marketing of the Company's news and entertainment programming outside the United States. TBS, a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., is a major producer of news and entertainment around the world.
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