Sony Films Head to Mobile Phones

The channel, known as PIX, will be stocked with titles such as 'Ghostbusters' and 'Stand by Me'

By Andrew Wallenstein

April 2, AdWeek

LAS VEGAS Sony Pictures Television is looking to launch the first movie network on mobile phones in the U.S.

The studio has signed a deal with AT&T and MediaFLO USA to launch the linear channel as one of two exclusive channels coming to the newly announced AT&T Mobile TV with FLO service in May.

The channel, to be known as PIX, will be stocked with titles such as Ghostbusters, Philadelphia and Stand by Me from Sony labels including Columbia, TriStar, Screen Gems and Sony Classics.

Mobile has been viewed mostly as a marketing platform for theatricals in the U.S. With the domestic mobile video category for even short-form clips lagging behind markets in Europe and Asia, Sony is looking to entice viewers with more diverse content offerings.

"What you see a lot on the carrier decks is promotional content that people can snack a little on," said Eric Berger, vp, mobile entertainment at SPT. "There's nothing currently there as deeply entertaining as these movies."

Films have been made available on handsets on an on-demand basis. Sony was one of several studios that contributed titles to content aggregator MSpot, which teamed with Sprint to launch MSpot Movies in 2006.

Sony always has been bullish on films via mobile. The studio also was the first in the U.S. to embed full-length titles on memory cards for handsets.

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photo: Sony is looking to entice viewers with more diverse content offerings (AdWeek)