Sprint is First to Offer Full-Length ''Pay-Per-View'' Movies on Mobile Phones in U.S. Tuesday September 5, 12:39 pm ET OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 5, 2006--Sprint (NYSE:S - News) launched today Sprint Movies, the first "pay-per-view" service for mobile phones in the U.S. that streams full-length movies, including recent box-office hits and timeless favorites from Buena Vista VOD, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Sprint Movies offers a growing list of more than 45 titles, including "National Treasure," "Spider-Man 2" and "Scarface." Sprint Movies is powered by mSpot, which is responsible for video production and ongoing operations of the service. Sprint Movies features many of the same conveniences as a DVD player. A movie can be seen in its entirety all at once, or it 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 exact point where it was last shut down. "Sprint Movies allows our customers to be entertained on the one device that they always carry with them and during times when watching a movie at a theater or on a home entertainment system isn't possible," said Alana Muller, director, entertainment product marketing, Sprint. "For example, customers can take their mind off a busy day during a lunch break, breeze through a few minutes while waiting in the parking lot for a child's soccer practice to end, or make a two-hour delay at the airport much more bearable. And with child-friendly titles such as 'Herbie: Fully Loaded' and 'Babe,' Sprint Movies are also great to keep the kids busy in the backseat." In December 2005, Sprint became the first carrier in the U.S. to offer any type of full-length movies on mobile phones with mSpot Movies. This service will continue to be available as another option to Sprint customers. Compared to Sprint Movies, which are pay-per-view by each title, mSpot Movies allow customers to watch a unique selection of unlimited movies, TV shows and concerts for a monthly subscription fee of $6.95. "Since mSpot Movies launched, subscriber growth has averaged more than 30 percent month over month, which indicates a strong interest from customers for this type of capability. We look forward to mobile-movie watching becoming even more popular with our additional offering now of Sprint Movies," said Muller. Sprint Movies cost between $3.99 and $5.99 each. Customers can view the movie for unlimited times within a set period, which varies between 24 hours and one week depending on the title. In addition, 24-hour titles include the option of purchasing up to two 24-hour viewing extensions at the rate of $.99. Sprint Movies is available on select Sprint multimedia handsets and can be watched anywhere while on Sprint's Power Vision network or nationwide Vision network. All titles from Sprint Movies are edited, when necessary, to meet TV-14 standards. New titles will continually be added to the Sprint Movies lineup. The initial titles are: Buena Vista VOD Annapolis Eight Below Glory Road Herbie: Fully Loaded National Treasure The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy The Village Lionsgate --------- Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector Sony Pictures Home Entertainment -------------------------------- Ultraviolet Spider-Man 2 Little Black Book Hollywood Homicide The Medallion The Net First Knight Universal Pictures ------------------ American Pie American Pie 2 Apollo 13 Babe Backdraft Billy Madison Bring it On Dante's Peak End of Days Erin Brokovich Fast and Furious Happy Gilmore How High Jaws Kindergarten Cop Meet the Parents National Lampoon's Animal House Reality Bites Scarface Slapshot The Bone Collector The Breakfast Club The Family Man The Jerk The Mummy The Mummy Returns The Nutty Professor 2 Tremors Twins U-571 About Sprint Video Sprint has a strong history of providing wireless data services that are innovative and unique, and Sprint's video offerings are a distinct example of this leadership. Sprint TV was recently awarded the Editor's Choice by PC Magazine and the Best Bet by PC World for the best video service on mobile phones. Sprint offers more than 50 video and audio channels of live and on-demand programming, and Sprint was the first U.S. mobile carrier to: Receive an Emmy® Award (Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development from The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences), Offer live television programming on mobile phones (MobiTV), Broadcast the first live concert directly on mobile phones (Bon Jovi), Offer full-length feature films on mobile phones (mSpot Movies), Provide any type of multimedia experience on mobile phones, beginning with video slides and audio (1KTV), Deliver a continuous streaming audio and video product up to 15 frames per second and Offer a Spanish-language live TV service. Source: Sprint
Personally I have no interest in watching a 2 hour movie on a cell phone. I'll take my 32" TV anyday...
Now only if my a900 were able to just play music from its flash memory for 2 hours, rather than stream a movie on EVDO for 2 hours without my battery dying, i would be set.
