Thumbplay News

NEW YORK, October 16, 2007 – Thumbplay® (www.thumbplay.com), the largest and fastest growing mobile entertainment content destination in the U.S., today announced an agreement with Universal Pictures and I-play, the mobile entertainment company, to bring nearly 100 clips from new and classic blockbuster movies to mobile users. Additional clips will become available later in the year.

Thumbplay customers can now take the best clips, exclusively edited for mobile, from Universal Pictures' extensive film archive with them on their mobile devices, including:

• The epic battle between the Roman Legion and an army of German barbarians from Gladiator;


• Jason Bourne in an old Mini Cooper leading police on a wild chase from The Bourne Identity;


• The climactic showdown of man and beast at the top of the Empire State Building in King Kong;


• A giant phantom cloud of sand pursuing an airplane across the desert in The Mummy;


• Steve Carell getting his chest waxed, one agonizing inch at a time, in The 40-Year-Old Virgin;


• The classic food fight scene from Animal House.

The collection also includes classic content from The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, all three films from The Fast and the Furious franchise and more than a dozen other popular classic movies.

"We are very excited about this great line-up of movie content we can now offer our customers," said Are Traasdahl, Thumbplay's CEO and founder. "Our partnership with I-play and Universal enables us to expand our already extensive catalog of video and to continue delighting and surprising the millions of consumers who visit our site each month with the broadest content and best entertainment experience."

"This strategic partnership enables Universal to further extend its reach within the burgeoning mobile space, offering users many of the best and most memorable scenes ever captured on film," said Jeremy Laws, Senior Vice President of Universal Mobile Entertainment. "The Thumbplay portal is extremely user friendly, making it very simple for the fans of our films to instantly access their favorite iconic moments on their mobile phones."

With more than 70,000 pieces of mobile entertainment content under license, including ringtones, wallpapers, games, videos, voice tones and text-based services, Thumbplay has built a strong consumer following and gained broad recognition as a leader in the direct-to-consumer mobile content space.

About I-play
I-play brings the best in mobile entertainment to an audience of over one billion people via a network of more than 120 carriers worldwide. I-play has been creating mobile games since 1998 and continues to spearhead the creation of mobile entertainment for the next generation.

I-play is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oberon Media, the world's leading casual games company. Oberon's Game Centre platform, is the industry standard and has been adopted by many of the world's largest corporations. The platform combines casual game content, merchandizing and features to fulfill each partner's specific needs. Oberon Media's publishing arm works with the industry's best, award-winning game developers to produce the top-selling casual games, which can be played in more than a dozen languages on PC, web-based, mobile and console platforms.

Founded in 2003, Oberon Media is headquartered in New York, with offices in North America, Europe and Asia.

For more information visit us at http://www.iplay.com.

I-play is a trademark and trading name of Digital Bridges Limited.

About Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group
Universal Pictures Digital Platforms (UPDPG) is responsible for global digital product development, production, licensing, distribution, and growth strategy for the extensive catalogue of Universal's properties across new and emerging digital platforms, including mobile, video game consoles, personal computers, and other portable devices. With a worldwide mandate to help shape the digital future of Universal Pictures, the Group has offices in Universal City, California; London, England; and Tokyo, Japan.

Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group is a unit of Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Universal Pictures is a division of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80% owned by General Electric and 20% owned by Vivendi.

About Thumbplay
Thumbplay, Inc. is defining the mobile entertainment experience for U.S. consumers. As the largest and fastest growing mobile entertainment content destination, Thumbplay gives consumers access to the broadest and deepest catalog in the industry, spanning audio, video and gaming content from the leading music labels and artists, game publishers and media companies. Its innovative delivery and marketing platform makes it easy for users to discover, manage, store and share mobile content online and on their wireless devices.

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates and Meritech. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com.

Labels: press-release

posted by Thumbplay at 3:36 PM