BEIJING, Aug. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Digital media company RealNetworks and Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks announced Tuesday the two companies have teamed up to challenge Apple's trinity of the iPhone, iPod player and iTunes store.

    MTV will merge its Urge music service into the Rhapsody offering from RealNetworks Inc. The new offering will be accessible on computers and music players and integrated with Verizon Wireless's VCast multimedia service for cell phones.

    Rhapsody America -- a new company -- will operate the service and MTV will heavily market the new offering starting in September, also providing music playlists and other programming.

    The companies did not say how much the new service will cost. Rhapsody currently charges subscribers 12.99 U.S. dollars a month for unlimited listening and sells individual tracks for 99 U.S. cents, with a discount for subscribers.

    Executives from the three companies said in a conference call that RealNetworks owns a majority of the new venture, though MTV's stake is "substantial." The relationship with Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain, is exclusive and long-term, the companies said.

    Michael Bloom, previously the general manager of Urge, will head up the new company. In an interview, he said Urge's existing customers will be migrated to Rhapsody America over time, but would not give further details. For now, Urge customers can use their accounts on Rhapsody and enjoy access to both services.

    Early wireless music programs were hindered by the relatively small amount of storage space available for music on cell phones.

    John Stratton, Verizon Wireless' chief marketing officer, said in Tuesday's conference call that phones with 8 gigabytes of storage - comparable to the biggest iPhone - would be available by the end of this year and phones with 16 GB of storage should be ready by mid-2008.

    (Agencies)