Sony movies coming to AT&T mobile TV via MediaFLO

By Tim Conneally | Published March 31, 2008, 4:51 PM

Sony Pictures Television has announced that it will provide its own linear movie channel called PIX with the AT&T's mobile TV service launching this May.

AT&T's MediaFLO-based Mobile TV service which was recently announced to be coming in May, will be unveiled with two exclusive content channels, Sony Pictures Television's PiX is one of them. Nonexclusive partner channels include ESPN, NBC, CBS, and Nickelodeon, which all broadcast on Verizon's VCAST TV service as well.

Sony has opted to show films in their entirety instead of condensing or digesting them into shortened forms optimized for mobile viewing. Up to this point, most content delivered on mobile TV (live sports excluded) has come in "mobisode" form, 3-5 minute long episodes tailored to the small screen.

Vice President of Mobile Entertainment at Sony Pictures Television, Eric Berger said in a statement that the channel is not for people "looking to view a movie for the first time," it rather appears to be for casual re-viewing, where a film is meant to be picked up and dropped at any point with little commitment. This means that PIX will most likely stay away from new releases and original content, offering instead older, proven films. The launch titles that Sony mentioned look to be that way: Ghostbusters, Philadelphia, Roxanne, Memento, The Karate Kid, Stand by Me, Layer Cake, and Resident Evil. Films will run for about a month on PIX with new titles added weekly.

Sony Pictures signed a deal with Korean mobile carrier SK Telecom in January which will stream Sony films on demand, according to The Korea Times. Sony titles will be available on that service for 1,000-2,000 won per download plus a data traffic fee. A similar deal was reportedly signed with Italian mobile carrier 3 earlier this year.

Sony has acknowledged that PIX could be changed to an on-demand model, but the mobile TV standards upon which the Korean and Italian services are built differ from MediaFLO in that they allow two-way communication, and MediaFLO is "Forward Link Only."