France’s dominant carrier Orange is rolling out an iPhone application on April 7 that will allow subscribers to access more than 60 television channels live, including the country’s national channels, TNT channels and thematic channels, in what could become an interesting gauge of consumer appetite for mobile TV.

The launch comes just as competing carriers SFR and Bouygues Telecom are to start selling the gadget after Orange parent France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) lost the right to sell the gadget exclusively in France. In December, its competition watchdog ruled that such an arrangement was anti-competitive. But now that all three French carriers will soon be offering the phone, content services that are offered on it will be more important than ever to distinguish the operators, especially as the pricing of the phones and their tariffs are very similar. Can Orange’s TV offering be that distinguishing service? It will be interesting to see if the new application can help it retain and add customers.

Orange subscribers can get unlimited access to some 20 television channels along with unlimited internet access, emails, visual voicemails, Wi-Fi access across France, and unlimited calls and SMS from 8pm to 8am starting at €42 euros a month. For those who want to keep their old monthly plan, they can add the TV service for €6 a month, or for €9 euros a month get the TV max option of over 60 channels. They can also access TV shows on a pay-per-view basis, and will be billed either by data consumed (€0.01 cents/10Kb) or per session (€0.50 per 20 minutes), depending on their plan.

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