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LONDON — U.K.-based film and television download start-up blinkbox.com, which lets users send personalized movie clips to friends — backed by content from Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount, Aardman and Discovery Networks — launched Monday.
The Web site went live in beta format for U.K. users, and will begin to roll out across Europe next year, founders said.
It offers conventional downloads of film and TV shows, but also allows users to pick out scenes — aka “blinks” — and forward them to other PCs or mobile devices with a personal message.
The launch content lineup includes such vintage fare as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Vertigo” and “The Italian Job,” cult classics including “The Big Lebowski” and more recent hits including “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” and “Superman Returns.”
There are six “blinks” of up to a minute in lenght to choose from each movie and cost £0.30 (61 cents) to send to a mobile phone or free to a PC.
The clips will come after a three second advertisement, and are followed by a message inviting the recipient to download the whole movie.
Negotiations are underway with all the other U.S. majors to provide their content to the service.
BlinkBox Entertainment was founded in 2006 by former Channel 4 and Atom executive Michael Comish, who serves as CEO, and former Vodafone executive Adrian Letts, who is COO.
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