About one third of the world's mobile phone users will regularly be watching TV broadcasts on their handsets in two years, which will open up lucrative industries for both content producers and network distributors, said Per Nordlof, Ericsson's director of Product Strategy, at a joint press briefing with Sony in Stockholm.

The two companies already have the joint venture Sony Ericsson for making mobile phones, but said they also see numerous opportunities for cooperation to cash in on the expected boom for mobile TV.

"It plays to the strength of both companies," said Eric Siereveld, Sony Europe's director of Professional Solutions. Ericsson is the leading supplier of mobile TV networks, he said, while "Sony's skill is clearly displayed in home electronics" that can make use of such broadcasts.

The two companies demonstrated a number of solutions it thinks will soon become commonplace in home entertainment, including systems where film footage and pictures can easily be sent between a regular TV and a mobile phone, allowing friends and family members to share footage with the press of a button.

Such solutions - based on the Digital Living Network Alliance, a cross-industry standard for allowing digital devices to share content through a home network - could hit the market by the second half of 2007, Nordlof said.

Ericsson and Sony will also work together to create new software to power such DLNA-based home networks, he said.

Ericsson also announced a contract with Belgian phone operator Proximus to provide an end-to-end solution for mobile TV broadcasts. The service includes what Ericsson hailed as the "world's fastest channel selector solution" for mobile TV, which lets users surf between channels by pressing a number key on the handset - similar to using a remote control.

"This saves time and brings the mobile TV experience closer to that of a home TV experience," Ericsson said in a statement.

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