Fox Mobile Group officially announced that its mobile video streaming service, Bitbop, was available starting Thursday.
The service will offer streaming video of full-length TV shows for $9.99 a month. Fox said the service will supply programming from "numerous top-notch content partners," including content from rival broadcast networks CBS, NBC in addition to Fox, as well as cable programmers, such as A&E, Comedy Central, Discovery, FX, MTV and USA. The company plans to offer full-length movies later this year.
While the service has been talked about for some time, Fox Mobile didn't mention any possible connection with its other big premium streaming video initiative: News Corp's/NBC Universal/Disney's Hulu video service. Nor did Fox mention anything about one major mobile phone product, the iPhone.
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Fox says Bitbop debuts exclusively on BlackBerry smartphones, including the BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Curve 8900 and the upcoming BlackBerry Tour 9630.
Joe Bilman, executive vice president of Global Products for the Fox Mobile Group, stated: "The potential of the smartphone has barely been tapped. Our goal is to provide consumers with an exciting new digital entertainment experience on their handheld devices, and what better place to start than with the original and continuously innovative smartphone."
Many other mobile programming services, and video aggregators already exist in the mobile space, including MobiTV, FLO TV and the phone carriers themselves.
A service that offers previously aired content on a single phone. Sh*tbop. Epic fail in the making. Hulu at $9.99 a month, Fox at $9.99 a month, (insert name of music service here) at $9.99 a month, unlimited data package on phone at $29.99 a month plus who knows what other upcharges and surcharges. No wonder I like cable TV.