U.S. mobile phone carriers are far behind their peers around the globe in terms of delivering full-length video to handsets. Verizon Wireless has full-fledged TV channels, VCast Mobile TV, made available through Qualcomm’s MediaFlo technology, but for the most part cell phone video in this country is limited to short clips of TV programs and hand-picked YouTube offerings.
Sprint, however, is trying a new tack. Starting today, video equipped Sprint phones will offer full-length versions of ABC’s hit shows “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Desperate Houswives” and “Ugly Betty.”
While the shows aren’t free, they’re part of Sprint’s high-speed data package priced at $20/month and will be available on-demand any time. Sprint is hoping that this move will give it a leg up over AT&T, which will launch the much-awaited Apple iPhone next month. The iPhone has a (supposedly) superior screen compared to most other handsets, but users will have to purchase programs from iTunes a la carte.
ABC is clearly pushing the envelope in finding new platforms for its programming. The network was the first to make TV shows available on iTunes, sparking a major shift in broadcast network content distribution.
Let’s hope other broadcast networks cut similar deals with mobile carriers for full-length TV shows. Those stupid short clips typical of the kind of video made available via wireless carriers in the U.S. are just dumb.
Cynthia Brumfield at 10:05 AM|Comments(1)
There is no way that I would ever spend $20 per month in order to watch the same content I have already pay for only on my cell phone. A much better solution would be to buy an audiovox phone and transfer your own video onto it or Samsung's new DivX phone, so that you can move your DivX files to go. If you look at the video cell market in Asia, you'll see that it is exploding, largerly because the cell providers are using ad based content instead of trying to go after the upper end of the market. For some people, it might be worth spending $240 per year, just to catch repeats of Desperate Housewives, but I'd rather see it on the big screen at home anyway.
Posted by: Davis Freeberg at May 15, 2007 10:55 AM
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