Lampard Takes Aim and Shoots - for His Own Tv Channel

To the adoring Chelsea faithful he is super Frank. To rival fans he is fat Frank or worse. From yesterday, he was TV Frank, the first footballer to launch his own dedicated mobile television channel.

England international and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard said the channel, featuring fly on the wall material shot by him on his mobile phone, would give viewers a glimpse of his life behind the headlines. "One of the reasons I do this kind of thing, and I am embarrassed to put a camera in my own face, I won't lie about that, is to show we're average people at home with our families doing ordinary things.

"It is nice because sometimes people criticise footballers and we deserve it or we don't. But we don't always get a voice to say exactly how we are."

The footage includes banter between players in the Chelsea dressing room and follows Lampard chatting to Ronaldhino as he collects his runner-up prize at the World Player of the Year awards.

At home, he is depicted putting wrapped presents under the tree for his daughter on Christmas Day, playing with his dogs and cooking brussels sprouts. In one clip he admits how much he loves his food, but hurriedly adds that he plans to run it off the following day.

The short mobile phone clips, on the Orange network, are mixed with interviews with his father, Frank Lampard senior, his cousin, former Liverpool player Jamie Redknapp, and England rugby international and Chelsea fan Lawrence Dallaglio. Chelsea masseur Billy Blood is the pratfalling star of the show. In a scene that will go down less well with his sponsors, Lampard's father and Redknapp both reveal that his worst failing is his inability to return either calls or text messages.

"I've enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would," said Lampard. "I'm pleased with the end product and that people can see the real you."

Lampard has a six-figure contract with Orange for a number of personal appearances and the FrankTV video diaries.

Jake Redford, head of mobile TV at Orange UK, said: "Frank TV makes for great bite-size viewing and provides our mobile TV viewers unique insight to the life behind the footballer."

Orange was an official partner of Chelsea, providing exclusive content and behind the scenes news to its customers, but the deal ended at the end of last season and will not be renewed.

Mobile networks have been trying for years to interest customers in mobile TV, one of the ways in which they hope to increase data traffic and recoup the £22.5bn they collectively spent on 3G licenses. Customers have so far been resistant to watching television on a tiny screen but mobile networks are hopeful that by creating exclusive content designed to be viewed in short bursts alongside mainstream channels, as well as simplifying pricing, they can yet make it a mainstream pursuit.

Orange's rival network 3 has enjoyed some success with user-generated content on its SeeMeTV service, while Sky Sports is hoping that football will do for mobile TV what it did for the uptake of satellite dishes when it shows top flight matches live on handsets this season.