Car maker Audi has announced that Audi Channel, its brand-dedicated entertainment channel, is to be distributed via mobile, enabling millions more people to view and enjoy Audi Channel content at whatever time suits them.
The Audi Channel is already available as a 24-hour non-subscription service on Sky Digital channel 884 and online on the Audi website. It will now also be available to owners of Nokia N-series mobile phones, and to users of the IPTV service, Joost.
Nokia users will be able to download one-minute clips from Audi Channel programmes such as Anatomy of Fear, and R10 v Harrier, which features the Le Mans-winning Audi R10 head-to-head in a sprint race with an RAF Harrier jet at RAF Wittering. The service is fully on-demand, so users can download the clips whenever they want, using the N-series Plus service.
Joost customers will be able to view content on their computers via broadband, with an initial offering of 10 hours of programming, with two more hours to be added every month.
These platform deals are a very exciting development for Audi Channel, says Peter Duffy, Head of Marketing for Audi UK. The Channel is rightly proud of its high-quality programming, so the opportunity to deliver it to a whole new audience of viewers and potential Audi customers is one we were eager to grasp. Audi has always been at the forefront of new technologies, so just as it was apt that we were the first brand to go beyond advertiser-funded TV programmes, its also fitting that we are looking into revolutionary methods of distribution such as peer-to-peer and on demand.”
Andrew Connell, Director of Multimedia at Nokia UK adds:
Consumers appetite for content from the Audi Channel is clearly strong. We have had over 15,000 downloads for N-series Plus in the last few months, and the Audi Channel is already proving to be one of the best performers”.
The current platform deal with Nokia runs until the end of the year, with a future deal pending. The Joost deal runs until March 2008. The Audi Channel was developed by ad agency BBH, and has been on air since October 2005. 
