Sprint Launches Mobile Phone Pay-Per-View Service

Sprint Nextel Corp. has launched Sprint Movies, the first "pay-per-view" service for mobile phones in the United States that streams full-length movies, including recent box-office hits and classics from Buena Vista VoD, Lions Gate, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures, the company announced on Tuesday.

Sprint Movies offers more than 45 titles, including "National Treasure," "Spider-Man 2" and "Scarface." It is powered by mSpot, which is responsible for video production and ongoing operations of the service, and offers some of the same features as a DVD player. For example, a movie can be seen in its entirety, or it can be divided into chapters and watched over time. Customers can play, pause and skip forward or backward to different chapters. They also can resume a movie at the exact point where it was last ended.

"Sprint Movies allows our customers to be entertained on the one device that they always carry with them and during times when watching a movie at a theater or on a home entertainment system isn't possible," said Alana Muller, director of entertainment product marketing at Sprint.

In December 2005, Sprint became the first carrier in the United States to offer any type of full-length movies on mobile phones with mSpot Movies. This service will continue to be available as another option to Sprint customers. Compared to Sprint Movies, which are pay-per-view by each title, mSpot Movies allow customers to view movies, TV shows and concerts for $6.95 per month.

Sprint Movies cost between $3.99 and $5.99 each. Customers can view the movie for unlimited times within a set period, which varies between 24 hours and one week, depending on the title. In addition, 24-hour titles include the option of purchasing up to two 24-hour viewing extensions at the rate of 99 cents.

Sprint Movies is available on select Sprint multimedia handsets and can be watched anywhere while on Sprint's Power Vision network or nationwide Vision network. All titles from Sprint Movies are edited, when necessary, to meet TV-14 standards. New titles will continually be added to the Sprint Movies lineup.

Sprint Nextel Corp. www.sprint.com

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