Sprint today launched Sprint Movies, a pay-per-view service that streams full-length movies to mobile phones. The new PPV service complements its existing mSpot service, which is subscription-based.
For Sprint Movies, Sprint has rights to 45 films (and counting) from Buena Vista VOD, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures, including “National Treasure,” “Spider-Man 2” and “Scarface.”
Both the mSpot service and Sprint Movies are enabled by mSpot, a startup that aggregates entertainment from major media companies, and optimizes it for delivery over existing wireless networks.
Sprint began making mSpot streaming movies available on a subscription basis last December. mSpot also provides Sprint with a music service.
Sprint Movies has some DVD-like features. 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.
The mSpot monthly subscription fee is $6.95. Sprint said subscriber growth for that service has averaged more than 30 percent month over month. Sprint Movies cost between $3.99 and $5.99 each. Customers can view the movie an unlimited number of times within a set period, which varies between 24 hours and one week, depending on the title. One-day extensions can be purchased for 24-hour titles for $0.99.