Pushing more content onto the latest smartphones, mobile entertainment provider Mobilefilmworks Inc. said it is releasing a beta streaming service that offers full-length movies from independent filmmakers on users’ mobile devices.
Now available on the Big Four U.S. carriers, the Mobilefilmworks service covers a few dozen devices including BlackBerry, Droid, iPhones, and Windows Mobile devices.
Movies are available from Mobilefilmworks’ mobile-optimized site, mobilefilmworks.com, where consumers can use a credit card to rent a film, which then streams immediately – no waiting for downloads.
The company says it has “inked deals with Film Festivals, and Film Makers,” which means it has not been able to sign up the major studios. While sites like Hulu, which offers current episodes of major TV shows, have proven quite popular, Hollywood is still approaching the world of mobile streaming and downloads gingerly. While the advent of muscled-up smartphones and new tablet-style computers like the iPad has made it clear that mobile devices represent a major future revenue stream for movie makers, many technological and copyright issues remain to be addressed.
In 2006, Sprint Nextel launched Sprint Movies, the first "pay-per-view" service for mobile phones in the U.S. While the service includes movies from Buena Vista VoD, Lions Gate, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures, it has yet to become a big success for Sprint.
Calling Mobilefilmworks “one of the first companies to give mass audiences instant access to quality, full-length independent movies on their cell phones," CEO Jeannie Collins said in a statement, “we're also able to offer all of our rich media services to recently released iPad, and the huge number of consumers who carry other mobile handsets."
New, mobile formats for watching movies will be a major focus of the Digital Hollywood trade show, May 3-6 in Santa Monica, Calif.
