The WRAL News Over Wireless “NOW”© edition will be available on many Sprint PCS Vision Java-enabled handsets. WRAL-TV is the first local television station in the country to offer up-to-the-minute news, traffic and weather on mobile phones. 

“The new mobile phone application gives us yet another way to better serve the public and makes sense in an increasingly wireless world,” said WRAL-TV Vice President & General Manager Jim Hefner.

DTV Plus, WRAL's sister company within Capitol Broadcasting, designed the new service with help from Air2Web.  The Atlanta-based Air2Web helps create mobile solutions for media customers such as The Weather Channel, CBS Sportsline.com and The Times of India Online.

“We view this as WRAL's third screen,” added DTV Plus Vice President & General Manager Sam Matheny.  “First is the television screen with analog and digital broadcasts, next the computer screen with WRAL.com, and now the mobile phone has become an important way to give viewers valuable information while on the go.”

WRAL News Mobile will give subscribers a graphically-rich display of top news stories and photos, still and looped weather images including the Doppler 5000 radar, the five-day forecast, severe weather watches and warnings, and traffic photos from 13 camera locations in the Triangle.

Current Sprint PCS Vision Plan subscribers can receive unlimited access to WRAL News Mobile for a monthly fee of $3.99, in addition to their regular monthly Vision data plan charge.

“We take pride in partnering with WRAL on this groundbreaking wireless initiative,” added Sprint State Public Affairs Executive for the Carolinas Steve Parrott.  “This will be the first time we have launched such an application with a regional broadcast organization.”

WRAL's foray into mobile applications for its news & weather is not the only first for the station.  WRAL was also one of the first television stations in the country to offer news via the Web and was the first station in the world to construct a high-definition TV news gathering operation.

To learn more about how to get WRAL News anytime, anywhere, visit http://mobile.wral.com .  The Web site includes sample screen shots of content available to subscribers.