Universal Studios' Blockbuster Movie Clips - Live on a Mobile Near You
SAN MATEO, California, May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- I-play, the mobile
entertainment company, and Universal Studios today announced a
groundbreaking streaming video service offering the most memorable scenes
from Universal's catalog of blockbuster movies to North American fans.
'Movie Minutes' marks the first agreement in mobile history where
blockbuster film clips are available on mobile.
Content from Universal Studios' extensive film archive includes scenes
from King Kong, The 40 Year Old-Virgin, and The Fast and the Furious, as
well as classic hits Animal House and The Breakfast Club. Re-live John
Belushi's classic food fight scene from Animal House, Steve Carell's wax
job in The 40 Year-Old Virgin, or the monumental battle between Kong and
the T-Rex in King Kong. Every day new clips will be available for purchase
from the vast Hollywood Movie Minutes library.
I-play has diversified into the broader mobile entertainment space in
order to leverage its strong relationships with Hollywood studios and to
utilize the full capabilities of its proprietary UNITY content delivery
platform. To leverage these strengths, I-play created the 'I-player(TM)'.
I-play's proprietary mobile video application that allows consumers to
stream video clips and bookmark their favorites to build up a personalized
library of videos. Offering usability unparalleled by other mobile video
players, Hollywood Movie Minutes allows users to search for their favorite
video clips by theme, genre or tag.
"This signals the launch of a ground-breaking service, which brings
bite-sized nuggets of blockbuster entertainment to movie fans on mobile for
the first time," said David Gosen, CEO of I-play. "Streaming video clips to
mobile devices is a huge growth area for us and we are thrilled to be
working with Universal Mobile Entertainment and proud to be in a position
to offer the best of Universal's film library to North American customers."
Jeremy Laws, Senior Vice President, Universal Mobile Entertainment
commented: "People love to talk about, reminisce over, and imitate their
favorite moments from film and television. Now those same fans can have
clips from Universal's rich film and TV library anywhere they go, anytime
they want them. I-play's proven reach and advanced technical platform make
them the perfect partner for this project in North America and we look at
this as a very natural extension of our strong relationship with them in
mobile gaming."
The service is live on Sprint (NYSE:S), Verizon (NYSE:VZ), Rogers (TSX:
RCI; NYSE: RG) and Amp'd and is due to be rolled out on other major US
carriers imminently.
About I-play
I-play brings the best in mobile entertainment to an audience of over
one billion people via a network of over 120 carriers worldwide, including
Sprint (NYSE:S), Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ), Cingular, Vodafone (LSE:
VOD.L) and Telefonica Moviles (NYSE: TEM), amongst others and online
portals including http://www.iplay.com/. I-play has been creating mobile
games since 1998 and continues to spearhead the creation of mobile
entertainment for the next generation. As one of the world's longest
established and respected creators of mobile entertainment, the I-play
brand stands for quality and the best in mobile development. A move into
mobile video content via a license agreement with Universal Mobile
Entertainment sees I-play offering the best clips from Universal Studios'
most popular blockbuster movies.
I-play's investors are Apax Partners and Argo Global Capital. I-play is
headquartered in London, with North American Regional HQ in San Mateo,
California and European Regional HQ in Dunfermline, Scotland; development
studios in Macclesfield, UK and Bucharest, Romania as well as sales offices
in Paris, Hamburg, Madrid, New York and Singapore.
For more information, please call +44-(0)-20-7031-8160 or visit us at
http://www.iplay.com/
I-play is a trademark and trading name of Digital Bridges Limited.
About Universal Mobile Entertainment
Universal Mobile Entertainment (UME) generates revenues and enhances
brand awareness for NBC Universal's motion picture and television
properties through licensing agreements with top-tier publishers. UME
oversees the creation of high-quality mobile application services that
include games, ringtones, wallpapers, MMS, SMS services and audiovisual
services, and ensures ubiquitous distribution through mobile operators and
portals worldwide. With offices in Los Angeles, London and Tokyo the team
has been aggressive in the mobile content market since 2000 and currently
has hundreds of mobile products that are available to consumers in every
major territory of the world.
About NBC Universal Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and
Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable
portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture
company, significant television production operations, a leading television
stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80% owned
by General Electric and 20% owned by Vivendi.
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