Proteus is launching Universal Channel content with three additional carriers in Latin America: Personal Argentina, Porta Ecuador and Movistar Peru.

Universal Channel Mobile is a premium content portal designed especially for fans of Universal Channel's hit television shows. This is Proteus' first venture into Ecuador and Peru.

"Relative to the U.S., the Latin American market has been an early adopter of data services such as text messaging," said Matt Garlick, director of the Latin American division at Proteus, Arlington, VA. "Furthermore, the average Latin American consumer is more likely to have access to the Internet via his or her phone than via the PC - mobile access outnumbers Internet access three to one.

"As a result, consumer brands and media companies in Latin America have been more open to exploiting the mobile device to communicate to and converse with their consumers," he said.

"The U.S. market and U.S. brands and media companies could learn from the Latin American experience by incorporating mobile, both via SMS/MMS and the mobile Internet, further into its overall integrated marketing strategy."

Universal Channel has 135 million subscribers who can download wallpapers, screensavers, ringtones, video clips, Java games and premium SMS campaigns based on the hit series of Universal Channel and Sci Fi Channel, such as "Heroes," "House" and "Law and Order."

The Universal Channel portal consists of premium content from Universal Studios' blockbuster film catalog including "40-Year-Old-Virgin" and Oscar-winning "Brokeback Mountain."

This content is now available in eight countries across 12 carriers, including Telcel, Movistar Mexico, Iusacell, Claro Honduras, Claro Dominican Republic, Claro Chile and Movistar Argentina.

"Proteus is providing Universal Channel with the technical platforms and mobile operator connectivity to reach 150 million cell phone users across eight countries," Mr. Garlick said.

"Specifically, Proteus' VIA platform is powering text-messaging campaigns [such as] alerts, trivia and SMS games based on the hit series of Universal Channel and films of Universal Studios," he said.

Proteus' MERX platform is enabling end users in Latin America to buy multimedia content such as video, ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers and Java games of their favorite series and films.

Proteus is also providing Universal Channel with formatting of its content for different types of mobile devices and marketing support to promote this content.

"For the mobile operators, Proteus and Universal Channel are bringing premium, branded content from the region's most successful television shows and films to the mobile operators, enabling them to provide a more richer service to their subscribers, beyond basic voice calls and text messaging," Mr. Garlick said.