Verizon Wireless customers can now watch television in the palms of their hands. The second-largest U.S. mobile phone carrier launched the nation's first commercial mobile TV service in 20 states on Thursday.

Verizon dialed up Vodafone as a partner in its new service that offers full-length programs with image quality that's close to traditional television broadcasts. Dubbed V Cast Mobile TV, the service offers both live content and other programming 24 hours a day from broadcast brands including CBS, Comedy Central, Fox, MTV, NBC News, NBC Entertainment, and Nickelodeon.

"Television has revolutionized our culture, and wireless phones have become an integral part of our everyday lives. V Cast Mobile TV represents the convergence of these two realities," John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Verizon, said in a statement. Verizon is charging $15 a month for the service, which was developed by Qualcomm's MediaFlo unit and offers eight channels.

Scheduled Programming

The V Cast Mobile TV service aims to present the shows in a format TV viewers are familiar with: scheduled broadcasts in both Eastern and Pacific time zones. Verizon comes out ahead of AT&T's planned mobile TV service. However, because both V Cast and AT&T's service rely on Qualcomm's MediaFlo technology for its underpinnings, the quality of the experiences should be similar, according to Stephen Froehlich, an analyst at IMS Research.

"The differentiator between mobile TV services will be in the content deals," he explained. Before the merger with AT&T, Cingular Wireless had struck deals for its Video service with Fox Sports, ESPN, Fox, and HBO to stream clips over its network. Unless carriers and broadcasters sign exclusive deals, there might not be much difference between the services from a content or quality perspective.

Analysts say broadcasters have little incentive to sign exclusives because they want the broadest possible reach for their content.

The Wow Factor

Content aside, Froehlich said mobile TV quality is impressive overall. "Since it's a digital broadcast, there is beautiful, rich color on an LCD screen. It really does look very good. This is the real deal and there's a lot of wow factor," he said.

Consumers might have to purchase new handsets to get that "wow factor," though. Handsets that are compatible with the service include the Samsung SCH-u620 and the LG VX9400. Those models also make room for what Verizon is billing as a true multimedia experience, including V Cast Music, V Cast Video, and Mobile Web 2.0SM.

The Samsung SCH-u620 features a 1.3-megapixel camera with flash, Bluetooth support, and speech-recognition capabilities with dictation for multimedia messaging. The Samsung phone retails for $199.

The LG VX9400 features Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, integrated speakerphone, and an external memory-expansion slot for storing music, pictures, and video clips. The price for the VX9400 has not yet been announced.