Come this May, you’d be able to watch full-length movies on your cell phones, all thanks to Sony. Soon to be launched AT&T’s Mobile TV has signed a deal with Sony Pictures Television for delivering movies. A similar deal has been forged with MediaFLO USA.
This would be the first-of-its-kind network in the United States. The channel to be aired on mobile phones is to be called PIX and will have on showing some classic titles like Ghostbusters, Philadelphia and Stand By me. The strategy to offer live broadcasts of movies in the US where even the short films category lags far behind the European nations is a bit surprising. Also to note is the prospect of watching continuous movies on a tiny screen without the ability to control the flow. That puts it all in perspective, doesn’t it?
But consider the history, Sony was the first to offer movie embeds in the memory cards and also contributed titles to MSpot, which later launched MSpot Movies with Sprint. So, this move of Sony hardly surprises industry analysts. Eric Berger, VP mobile entertainment at Sony Pictures Television, doesn’t even want people to be sitting for two hours in front of their handset screens. He says,
We recognize that people are on the go with their mobile phone and coming and going. This isn’t for people looking to view a movie for the first time. It’s OK to miss the beginning.
Sony is also looking for other carriers to hop aboard its PIX plan. Business and revenue-sharing models will be differed according to the partners involved. Sony might know what it is getting into but I have my doubts. There are prospects of new titles being added on a weekly basis after the initial run that’d last a month. Maybe that’ll change the mind of consumers, but again, I have my doubts.
