Despite an aggressive GBP2.5 (US$4.9) million ad campaign, fronted by former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, Virgin Mobile, the first to market in the U.K. with a broadcast TV service to mobile phones, has failed to gain much traction, according to this article in The Guardian. In fact, it quotes industry insiders as saying Virgin Mobile has signed up “significantly” fewer than 10,000 customers for its Virgin Mobile TV (VMTV) service.

Virgin Mobile’s CEO, Alan Gow, declined to give a figure but his admission that mobile TV is in its infancy, and that the availability of just one handset has so far hampered sales, speaks volumes. The device, the Lobster phone, has not been a hit – even though the operator has recently cut the price of the handset (made by HTC) from GBP199.99 (US$393.00) to just GBP99 (US$194.00) for pre-pay customers. (Pre-pay customers can also watch TV for free for the first 90 days, after which time they must pay GBP5 a month.)

To remedy this problem, Virgin Mobile plans to offer a wider range of handsets later this year and introduce new services such as allowing people to download and store TV programs on their phones to view when they are out of coverage. But these measures won’t drive results if rival operators are right. They maintain VMTV’s problem is its limited range of channels. VMTV, backed by BT, uses the digital radio spectrum to broadcast TV, allowing viewers to watch five channels – compared to O2, which offers users 16 channels.