Sky to offer legal movie download via the internet

Sky has launched two new services that will allow sky subscribers to watch sky movies away from their television. The two new services - Sky by broadband and Sky by mobile – will allow usersto download blockbuster or classic movies to enjoy when they want and access highlights of the weekend’s Barclays Premiership matches on their PC with Sky by broadband, or catch up with the latest news on the move with Sky by mobile.

The Sky by broadband and Sky by mobile services come in response to growing evidence of consumers’ desire to take control of their TV viewing and to access media content in different ways. Sky by broadband is a new service available exclusively to Sky digital customers that lets viewers legally download a wide range of movies and highlights from Sky Sports and watch them on their home PC at no extra cost.

More than 200 movies are available at launch including a mix of Hollywood blockbusters such as Spider-Man 2 and The Day After Tomorrow, and cult-classic Sky Movies titles from Alien: The Director's Cut to Dr Strangelove. The number of titles will increase over time to encompass over a thousand titles from the Sky Movies catalogue. The service offers a complete A-Z movie listing and search by genre function. Users can set their movie preferences and searches can be sorted by director, film name, and actor allowing viewers to create their own movie download library.

The service will also include over 1,000 Sky Sports video clips at any one time including highlights of every Barclays Premiership and UEFA Champions League match. In addition to the movies and sports on Sky by broadband, Sky One will also launch an online entertainment package in 2006. Sky by mobile gives Sky digital and Sky Bet customers access to Sky entertainment, sports, news and weather on the move. Broadband now accounts for 57.4% of all UK internet connections (source: National Statistics, September 2005) as consumers take advantage of faster connection speeds to watch video content or download music on their PC. Almost half (47%) of all Sky digital customers have broadband connected PCs, compared to a national average of 38%.

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