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Telecommunications Sprint offers full length pay-per-view movies on cellphones
Telecommunications Sprint offers full length pay-per-view movies on cellphones | Sprint offers full length pay-per-view movies on cellphones |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Wednesday, 06 September 2006 | |
  
There are 45 movies available at launch including "recent box-office hits and timeless favourites" from Buena Vista VOD, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures. The service is powered by mSpot, which is responsible for video production and ongoing operations of the service and which delivers Sprint's current subscription-based movie service. A movie can be seen in its entirety or can be divided into chapters and watched over time. Customers can play, pause and skip forward or backward to different chapters. They can also resume a movie at the point where it was last shut down. In December 2005, Sprint became the first carrier in the US to offer any type of full-length movies on mobile phones with mSpot Movies which allows customers to watch a selection of movies, TV shows and concerts for a monthly subscription fee of $US6.95. Sprint claims that growth has averaged 30 percent per month since launch This service will continue to be available. Sprint Movies cost between $US3.99 and $US5.99 each. The viewing window varies between 24 hours and one week depending on the title. The viewing window for 24 hour titles can be extended for two 24 hour periods at 99 cents each. Analysts differ over the expected popularity of so-called 'long form' (greater than 30 minutes) mobile video content, but according to the latest research from In-Stat long form mobile/portable video content will "begin to gain traction and demonstrate its long-term potential" by 2008. In-Stat analyst Michael Inouye, said: "The greatest potential for this market rests with its ability to complement the existing video industry. For example, there will be over 50 million portable media players in use worldwide by 2008...The portable/mobile long form video market will not likely cannibalise sales from the DVD and other traditional markets, but rather, supplement top-line growth." In-Stat says its research found that - It is not clear if users will prefer an all-purpose multimedia cellular phone or separate voice and multimedia devices; - Mobile video subscribers stand to represent over 10 percent of US wireless subscribers by 2009; - Roughly one out of eight respondents to an In-Stat survey of mobile users expressed interest in mobile video for the cellular market. |
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