Movie messaging comes to 3G

January 12, 2005 - source: BWCS

Hollywood is coming to German mobiles. Following yesterday's news that mobile users will be liable to pay TV licence fees in Germany for their handsets, if they have not already done so for their TVs, one company, Convisual, has taken this as a cue to start offering major movies via 3G phones.

The Oberhausen-based Convisual, which likes to describe itself as one of the first "visual" mobile messaging service providers, has signed an international licence deal with an unspecified number of Hollywood film companies. The agreement will allow Convisual to use excerpts from some of the best known films of the past decade as video clips, ring-tones and even screensavers for mobile users anywhere outside the US market. Singapore-based SingTel will be one of the first companies to offer the new services to its customers. The Asia Pacific operator plans to launch services in the first quarter of this year.

The head of Convisual, Thomas Wolf, believes that enabling operators and device manufacturers to offer customers the ability to play back their favourite movie scenes on their phones and send them as greetings to friends will help "kick-start" 3G services. It will also, he argues, help make his company's customers more competitive. However, it remains to be seen how well these clips will play on the very small screen. With consumer interest in TV on mobiles predicted to be low, film scenes on handsets may not prove the blockbuster service Convisual is hoping.