Sprint intros pay per view mobile movies

US mobile customers can now access full length, pay per view movies on their handsets, following the launch of a new service by US cellco Sprint Nextel late Tuesday.

Sprint Movies, which already has the backing of Buena Vista VOD, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures, offers a list of more than 45 titles at launch, including recent hits “National Treasure” and “Spider-Man 2” and classics such as “Scarface.”

The service, which is powered by mSpot, allows a movie to be seen in its entirety all at once, or can be divided into chapters and watched over time. Customers can play, pause and skip forward or backward to different chapters. They can also resume a movie at the exact point where it was last shut down. The movies are distributed over Sprint’s 1x EV-DO 3G network.

Sprint Movies cost between $3.99 and $5.99 each and 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 $0.99.

Sprint already launched a mobile movies service in 2005 with mSpot Movies. This service will continue to be available allowing customers to watch a selection of unlimited movies, TV shows and concerts for a monthly subscription fee of $6.95.

Alana Muller, director of entertainment and product marketing at Sprint said: “Since mSpot Movies launched, subscriber growth has averaged more than 30 per cent month over month, which indicates a strong interest from customers for this type of capability.”