Sony's Crackle movie and TV streaming service debuts on Android phone app market

Now playing on an Android phone in a hand near you: Sony's Crackle service for streaming movies and television shows.

Crackle for Android, which debuted Wednesday on Google's Android Market, gives viewers access to hundreds of titles. The free version lets viewers watch condensed snippets of TV episodes. A premium version costing $4.99 a month gives viewers access to a bigger roster of titles from Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star, Screen Gems and, of course, Sony Pictures Classics.

With featured titles such as "La Femme Nikita," "Bram Stoker's Dracula," "Taxi Driver," and "Drunken Master," the lineup is largely back catalog titles rather than hot new releases.

Sony claims to be the first to offer an app that can stream TV shows and full-length movies on mobile phones that have the Android operating system, developed by Google.

There's no dearth of entertainment options among the 67,747 Android applications, according to Appolicious, an app review and recommendation site. But when it comes to movies and TV shows on Android, the offerings resemble swiss cheese, with large gaps of missing content.

Blockbuster, for example, has an app that can stream movies, but only on a handful of devices including Motorola's Droid X phones from Verizon and HTC's HD2 handset from T-Mobile. YouTube, which is owned by Google, has more than 300 movies users can rent, but lacks titles from several major Hollywood studios. Another app, FuelTV, carries mainly extreme sports videos. And Slingbox can access only TV programming and recorded shows from the owner's home television.

Eric Berger, senior vice president of Sony Pictures' digital network and head of Crackle, said the service seeks to differentiate itself by programming a select number of genres such as science fiction, horror, comedy, action and thriller.

"We don't just aggregate content," Berger said. "We program and curate our titles to fit the tastes of our viewers."

The service began as an online video sharing service called Grouper Networks in 2004 and was purchased by Sony in 2006 for $65 million. Sony renamed the service Crackle and began streaming licensed content from its own movie and TV archives as well as content from other studios, attracting an average of 7 million unique online viewers a month this year, up from 5 million two years ago.

Sony is launching the mobile version of Crackle on Android, but has plans to develop one for Apple's iPhones, where Netflix currently dominates with its Instant Watch application for subscribers.

-- Alex Pham

Photo: Crackle application on an Xperia cellphone running Google's Android operating system. Credit: Sony Pictures.

 

Slingbox: A cure for a nonexistent problem

 

I've never understood the appeal ofSlingbox, the 5-year-old device that allows people to watch their local television stations and cable channels from anywhere outside their home. It strikes me that Slingbox is a solution in search of a problem -- and may be creating one too. Soon we'll see if the public and the television industry agree.

In his Slipstream column, the New York Times' Brad Stone says EchoStar, the satellite broadcaster that bought Sling Media almost two years ago in a deal valued at $380 million, is about to launch a big push to bring Slingbox into the mainstream. The plan, Stone writes, is not only to hype the device to EchoStar's 14 million subscribers but also to coax other cable and satellite distributors to license the technology as well. Considering how many times EchoStar's Chief Executive Charlie Ergen has alienated rival media companies, I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

Here's how Slingbox works: Plug it into your television, and when you are on the road you can access your TV on your computer through an Internet connection or on a mobile phone.

The thing is, as someone who travels frequently, I don't need to tote my TV along with me. If I'm at a hotel -- guess what! -- there is a TV right there in the room("free HBO"). If I'm with friends, they have -- you're not going to believe it -- a TV. The shows are the same wherever you go, so the idea of watching them through a connection to my own television set really doesn't seem exactly cutting edge. At a price tag ranging from $180 to $200, the Slingbox seems like a redundant luxury in the age of Hulu and iTunes.

The only programming that is different from town to town across America is local news and sports. I'm guessing that most people on the road don't miss their local news. Sports is another story, however, and if the Slingbox does gain popularity, the sports leagues will pull the plug on viewers being able to watch games outside of their hometown but quick. I know someone who lives in Washington, D.C., and accesses Red Sox games from a second home in Massachusetts through a Slingbox. If only a handful of people are doing it, the leagues will look the other way. But if it becomes widespread, local television and cable channels that shell out millions for sports rights would make a stink. Big time. 

Slingbox also touts that you can access your DVR and watch shows you've recorded. Okay, but if they're already on my DVR, I'm in no rush to watch them. I'm much more likely to travel with a bunch of movies or shows on my iTunes. 

And then there's this marketing gem from a Slingbox advertisement on its site that excitedly declares that with the device, "you can watch TV in another room in your house on the computer." Of course, if you have a TV in one room, why would you go into another room to watch it on a computer?

Since it launched five years ago, Stone notes that Slingbox has not grown beyond "a few hundred thousand technology geeks who love the cutting edge and don't mind braving the dust devils behind their entertainment centers to get there." 

And since it launched, numerous other services that don't cost $200 have popped up, so it seems more likely that the tech geeks will move on before the mainstream starts demanding their Slingbox. 

-- Joe Flint

Top photo: Sling Media co-founder Blake Krikorian holds up the Slingbox PRO-HD, left, and the SlingCatcher at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Credit: Paul Sakuma/Associated Press.  Inset photo: EchoStar Chief Executive Charlie Ergen. Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images.