As studios are catching on to the idea of movies being converted into the new Universal Media Disc or UMD for use in Sony’s PlayStation Portable or PSP, Paramount Pictures is the latest studio to add their titles to the competition.
Today Paramount announced that on August 9th three titles will be hitting the UMD format including Team America, Coach Carter and Without a Paddle followed closely on August 30th by Sahara and “Viva La Bam: Volume 1,” which coincidentally is the first announced TV show for the format.
In conjunction with Comedy Central Home Entertainment and Nickelodeon Home Entertainment, Paramount Home Entertainment will distribute “Ren and Stimpy Volume 1 1/2 ish,” “SpongeBob SquarePants: Volume 1,” “Chappelle’s Show: Volume 1,” ‘South Park: Volume 1″ and SpongeBob SquarePants The Movie as part of future waves of titles.
“Viacom is distinctly positioned to provide a wide variety of content for this new portable multimedia platform given our unique assets which reach the key demographics for PSP,” said Thomas Lesinski, President, Paramount Pictures, Worldwide Home Entertainment. “Our 2005 release schedule demonstrates our commitment to PSP with a great slate of titles ideally suited for this handheld system which has now sold over one million units.”
I have to say the idea to release TV shows on the PSP is brilliant considering they are shorter and will give consumers the option to either pop in a two hour movie or a half hour sitcom depending on the situation.
