Movies coming to a mobile near you
A UK start-up offering cinema-quality short films on mobiles has signed deals with global telecoms giants to reach millions of new users.
Discover.film, co-founded by media entrepreneur Sarah Jane Thomson, will be launched this week as an app on 100 million Huawei handsets in 26 countries and on My5, the Channel 5 streaming service. It is also in talks with other mobile operators, and is set to announce a deal with Jio, India’s biggest telecoms company, to go live on its set-top boxes and then its vast mobile network.
Its catalogue of more than 10,000 films, typically three to 45 minutes long, includes The Karman Line starring Olivia Colman as a mother hit by a rare condition that sees her lift off the ground, and Inseparable, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
Thomson said: ‘This is a big growth market, as millennials look for quality short-form content, evidenced by the growth of TikTok and YouTube.’
Its big competitor is Hollywood start-up Quibi, founded by former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, which has raised $1.75 billion to produce mini-shows for mobiles.
Discover.film has investment of £1.5million to date from Thomson, her husband Steve, plus two wealthy investors. It licenses its content from film-makers, who receive a share of revenue from the films streamed through its app and online in 190 countries. It is funded by advertising and has also signed distribution deals with Eurostar and airlines.