SAN MATEO, California, May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- I-play, the mobile entertainment company, and Universal Studios today announced a groundbreaking streaming video service offering the most memorable scenes from Universal's catalog of blockbuster movies to North American fans. 'Movie Minutes' marks the first agreement in mobile history where blockbuster film clips are available on mobile.

Content from Universal Studios' extensive film archive includes scenes from King Kong, The 40 Year Old-Virgin, and The Fast and the Furious, as well as classic hits Animal House and The Breakfast Club. Re-live John Belushi's classic food fight scene from Animal House, Steve Carell's wax job in The 40 Year-Old Virgin, or the monumental battle between Kong and the T-Rex in King Kong. Every day new clips will be available for purchase from the vast Hollywood Movie Minutes library.

I-play has diversified into the broader mobile entertainment space in order to leverage its strong relationships with Hollywood studios and to utilize the full capabilities of its proprietary UNITY content delivery platform. To leverage these strengths, I-play created the 'I-player(TM)'. I-play's proprietary mobile video application that allows consumers to stream video clips and bookmark their favorites to build up a personalized library of videos. Offering usability unparalleled by other mobile video players, Hollywood Movie Minutes allows users to search for their favorite video clips by theme, genre or tag.

"This signals the launch of a ground-breaking service, which brings bite-sized nuggets of blockbuster entertainment to movie fans on mobile for the first time," said David Gosen, CEO of I-play. "Streaming video clips to mobile devices is a huge growth area for us and we are thrilled to be working with Universal Mobile Entertainment and proud to be in a position to offer the best of Universal's film library to North American customers."

Jeremy Laws, Senior Vice President, Universal Mobile Entertainment commented: "People love to talk about, reminisce over, and imitate their favorite moments from film and television. Now those same fans can have clips from Universal's rich film and TV library anywhere they go, anytime they want them. I-play's proven reach and advanced technical platform make them the perfect partner for this project in North America and we look at this as a very natural extension of our strong relationship with them in mobile gaming."

The service is live on Sprint , Verizon , Rogers (TSX: RCI; NYSE: RG) and Amp'd and is due to be rolled out on other major US carriers imminently.

About I-play

I-play brings the best in mobile entertainment to an audience of over one billion people via a network of over 120 carriers worldwide, including Sprint , Verizon Wireless , Cingular, Vodafone and Telefonica Moviles , amongst others and online portals including http://www.iplay.com/. I-play has been creating mobile games since 1998 and continues to spearhead the creation of mobile entertainment for the next generation. As one of the world's longest established and respected creators of mobile entertainment, the I-play brand stands for quality and the best in mobile development. A move into mobile video content via a license agreement with Universal Mobile Entertainment sees I-play offering the best clips from Universal Studios' most popular blockbuster movies.

I-play's investors are Apax Partners and Argo Global Capital. I-play is headquartered in London, with North American Regional HQ in San Mateo, California and European Regional HQ in Dunfermline, Scotland; development studios in Macclesfield, UK and Bucharest, Romania as well as sales offices in Paris, Hamburg, Madrid, New York and Singapore.

For more information, please call +44-(0)-20-7031-8160 or visit us at http://www.iplay.com/

I-play is a trademark and trading name of Digital Bridges Limited. About Universal Mobile Entertainment

Universal Mobile Entertainment (UME) generates revenues and enhances brand awareness for NBC Universal's motion picture and television properties through licensing agreements with top-tier publishers. UME oversees the creation of high-quality mobile application services that include games, ringtones, wallpapers, MMS, SMS services and audiovisual services, and ensures ubiquitous distribution through mobile operators and portals worldwide. With offices in Los Angeles, London and Tokyo the team has been aggressive in the mobile content market since 2000 and currently has hundreds of mobile products that are available to consumers in every major territory of the world.

About NBC Universal 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.

CONTACT: Media Contacts: Anna Brog, I-play, +44-(0)-20-7031-8165,
anna.brog@iplay.com