Seagate and Paramount team up on pre-loaded movies

Seagate and Paramount - next gen bloatware or handy addition?
Seagate and Paramount - next gen bloatware or handy addition?

Seagate and Paramount have teamed up to offer pre-loaded movies on portable hard-drives – offering the user the chance to unlock them for around $10 (£6.50).

In a move that the more cynical among you may liken to next generation bloatware, Seagate will fill its FreeAgent Go hard drive with movies that the user will only be able to access by paying.

As a sop, the new Star Trek movie will be unlocked for your viewing pleasure..

Jump-starter for 10 (dollars)

"We have teamed up to create what we think is a unique offering that will help jumpstart the creation of digital home movie collections," said Malik Ducard, senior vice-president of Paramount Digital Entertainment, who is in charge of digital distribution in the Americas.

"This is a big step for Seagate, we believe we are addressing a real customer need to get movies and view them wherever they want," added Darcy Clarkson, Seagate's vice-president of sales and marketing.

Although we presume that the data can be overwritten should you not want to pay £6.50 for a digital movie which will, presumably, be locked to the device, it seems a slightly odd solution to encouraging people to start a digital film collection.

Currently, new movies iTunes cost around £10.99 and new releases on DVDs around £12, but with VOD becoming more prevalent costs could well fall.

Paramount has also tried a different digital solution in the past - offering a USB stick with the Star Trek movie on.

Via FT

Patrick Goss

Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content.  After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.