Coming soon, movies on mobile phones

BPL Mobile is making movie watching on mobile phones a reality. To begin with, the GSM operator is planning to provide a 15-minute digitalised version of Hindi movies over mobile phones, for which it had entered into an agreement with Mumbai-based Shemaroo Films.

The company is also set to launch TV on mobile, making it the first GSM operator in the country to roll out the services. CDMA service provider Reliance Communications had launched TV on mobile services in the country earlier.

BPL Mobile CEO S Subramaniam said: "We have completed the beta testing of the product, which was encouraging, with over 1,000 users and we intend to launch this in a week."

BPL Mobile will start with offering Hindi movies that are digitalised and compressed into 15-minute formats, starting with Chupke Chupke, Sadma, Golmaal, Khubsoorat and Shiva. The company has entered into an agreement with Shemaroo Films to use its library, and BPL Mobile will look at adding more movies in the course of time, he said.

The story length has been edited to fit in 15 minutes, and Subramaniam claims that the storyline of the movie won't be broken.

At present, full-length movies cannot be broadcasted over mobile movies due to technology constraints. However, the emergence of 3G services in the country would make this a reality.

Meanwhile, the company is also close to launching TV services on mobile phones.

Essar Teleholdings vice president (VAS & devices) Sunzay Passari said that the company will stream content from channels like NDTV India, NDTV 24X7, NDTV Profit, Aajtak and Headlines Today among others. The services would be launched on Monday.

The services are being launched on 2 and 2.5 G environment and can be accessed by a medium to high range of handsets.

The services are being provided under pay-for-use scheme and the company would levy a charge of Rs 5 per minute. BPL Mobile operates from Mumbai circle and has over 1.6 million customers on its network.