Mobile World Live TV: Back in Barcelona (sponsored content)

It’s almost time for the doors to open on the world’s biggest annual mobile tech event: Mobile World Congress. And this year the Mobile World Live team is ramping up its TV broadcast with some major new program launches. This year we’ve expanded our coverage in a BIG way. Here’s ten reasons to stay tuned to Mobile World Live TV throughout the week of MWC:

1. For the first time, EVERY keynote at MWC16 will be streamed live to a dedicated channel on mobileworldlive.com. So if you aren’t able to grab a seat in the auditorium, you can follow every second of the week’s keynote conference programme live online, wherever you are. Chief execs from the entire mobile ecosystem – including operators AT&T, Bharti, China Mobile and Vodafone; vendors Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei and Intel; and disruptors such as Buzzfeed and PayPal – will take to the stage. Mobile World Live is the exclusive home to all this content. And don’t worry if you miss anything; we’ll post all individual sessions on mobileworldlive.com for replay within 24 hours.
2. The man behind the world’s biggest social network has now set his sights on another HUGE task: connecting the entire world to the Internet. This year’s MWC will ‘mark’ Zuckerberg’s third appearance in Barcelona and Mobile World Live TV will broadcast the entire event. Expect talk of drones, lasers and satellites, with a controversial splash of net neutrality thrown in for good measure. We will also have a special guest panel in our TV studio to preview and analyse Zuck’s news.
3. One of the most famous – and fastest – sportsmen in the world is dropping into MWC this year. Three-time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton will take to the keynote stage on the Tuesday evening, joined by other members of the Mercedes AMG Petronas team, in a session with Qualcomm president Derek Aberle. We’re not sure how much Lewis himself knows about the latest Snapdragon processor technology, but we’re likely to find out how mobile tech is transforming motorsport and the consumer automotive market.
4. Now in its 21^st year, the mobile industry’s biggest annual awards ceremony has had a makeover and will be a big part of MWL TV’s coverage in 2016. Select categories in the Glomo Awards will be presented live from Hall 3 as part of our broadcast throughout the week. And continuing the motorsport theme, Suzi Perry, the face of BBC One’s Formula 1 programming for the past two years, will be our very special host.
5. To keep Suzi really busy, she’ll be roving the showfloor and getting hands-on with the latest mobile tech at the show. With a love of technology and many years’ experience presenting The Gadget Show, Suzi is the perfect host for our feature videos focused on the major device launches at MWC16.
6. Our live broadcasts from Hall 3 last year provided some memorable moments (my personal favourite was MWL TV host Sasha Twining dancing with the Microsoft stand staff) and this time around we’re expanding our live coverage from the showfloor. Plus – we’ll be broadcasting live from the conference in Hall 4 too. Our team of reporters will be keeping you updated on news from the keynotes, with regular analysis direct from the main auditorium.
7. MWL TV’s executive producer Jacquie Luscombe is on a mission to surpass our tally of 30 CEO interviews last year (in a recent editorial meeting she set us a challenge: “I want 40!”). MWL TV will ask the industry’s biggest names the most important questions.
8. Our studio in Broadcast Village will also bring you topical debates on the industry’s hottest issues. Our series of panel discussions will cover everything from ad blocking to low power IOT, and mobile identity to virtual reality. Each panel will feature the major players in the market, with our moderators diving into the big issues.
9. In another first, we’ll be broadcasting live from our studios on the afternoon of Sunday 21 February. Over the past few years Sunday has become the ‘unofficial’ opening day of MWC and this year’s lineup of device launches looks set to make early headlines at the event. From 4-6pm on Sunday we will be reporting on the events happening around the city, and we’ll be inviting some of the industry’s biggest names into the studio for live interview.
10. Remember the ‘old’ MWC venue, Fira Montjuic? Well that’s now home to 4YFN, the startup and investor event set to attract 12,000 attendees this year. MWL TV will provide coverage of the 400+ startups exhibiting and keynotes from Amazon and Google Ventures.

So that’s ten. But there’s more – we’ll be interviewing Pepper the Robot. The fastest man on two wheels (this is quite a theme this year…), Moto GP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, will be popping into the studio for a chat. And of course there’s our coverage of all the major press conferences from the likes of Huawei, Nokia, Samsung, Sony and Xiaomi.

You can follow our broadcast live on mobileworldlive.com or on the dedicated TV channel across the city of Barcelona and the Fira Gran Via, as well as via the official event app, MyMWC.