STAR India, Ericsson in Mobile Content Deal

MUMBAI, September 11: STAR
India has reached a deal to pre-load its recently launched PLUS mobile
application, featuring lifestyle, movie and sports content, among other genres,
on a range of Sony Ericsson phones in India, reaching more than 10 million
mobile subscribers in the region.

This is the
biggest partnership between a handset company and a content provider in the
Indian mobile market. The PLUS application from STAR will be pre-loaded on Sony
Ericsson’s Walkman and Cyber-shot handsets from November 2007 onwards. PLUS will allow Sony Ericsson users to access more
than 200 videos from TV, music and film every month. The service also provides
TV show information, unlimited access to sports scores and updates, movie
reviews, music downloads, news and trivia from Universal Music, mobile banking
services through HDFC Bank, travel booking through Make My trip, Travelguru
& Yatra, Yellow pages from Infomedia Group, lifestyle product information,
astrology services from Ganesha Speaks and more.

As a part of this
partnership, STAR’s mobile entertainment division will also pre-load Sony
Ericsson phones with a variety of specially-created mobile video clips of
different genres. Sony Ericsson users will also be able to access a range of
fresh content, updated every month through a dedicated Sony Ericsson zone on
the PLUS application.

Sony Ericsson
and STAR have also planned 360-degree co-marketing activities to target key
mobile markets to build consumer awareness and encourage usage for the PLUS
service on Sony Ericsson phones.

Commenting on
the partnership, Viren Popli, the senior VP of STAR Mobile Entertainment, said:
“STAR’s mobile entertainment division
aims to serve mobile consumers in India with compelling entertainment and
relevant information anytime, anywhere. This partnership with Sony Ericsson
brings together great phones and great content and services. PLUS on Sony
Ericsson phones will allow the consumer to search, shop and consume not just
entertainment but all Internet-based services from their phones in a simple and
easy way.”