Monday, July 23, 2007

Mobile entertainment goes another step forward in India.

Stuck in the traffic? Facing a longish train journey? Bored of hearing the same old songs? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to see a short movie on your ride home?
This is exactly the kind of service that will soon be available to mobile phone users in India. A tie up between BPL ( a leading Indian mobile phone service provider) and Shemaroo ( an online store of Bollywood movies) was recently announced to provide streaming 15 minute movies on your mobile phone. Key scenes of a movie will be picked and condensed into an abridged 15 minute version. The real challenge, of course, will be to ensure that the essence of the movie is not lost through the abridged version.
The cost to the viewer is Rs 5 per minute taking the total cost of watching the 15 minute movie to Rs 75 (around $2). The movie can be stopped at anytime and the viewer will be charged only for the portion of the movie watched.