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
