Transformers first in USB drive movie deal

DIGITAL: Paramount signs pact with Kingston for other titles, also SD cards

By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 11/2/2009

NOV. 2 | DIGITAL: Paramount Digital Entertainment has signed a deal to deliver select movies on Kingston USB drives and SD cards.

The announcement comes after the studio quietly debuted Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on Kingston USB drives.

Paramount offered the first Transformers on a USB drive given away to buyers of Dell netbooks in June, a Kingston spokesman said. Revenge of the Fallen, released last month, is being sold on Transformers-branded USB drives, available for $29.99 through Office Max stores nationwide.

To watch the movie, consumers plug the drive into their computer, and the USB drive must be connected to the computer for the movie to play, a Kingston spokesman said. The company is telling customers to save it as a backup on their computer in case they accidentally erase it from the USB drive while saving other things to the drive.

Kingston plans to sell other movies from Paramount on the drives and eventually on SD cards.

“As more and more movies are viewed on computers and other portable devices, having a relationship with Kingston will become increasingly important to Paramount for years to come,” PDE executive VP and general manager Alex Carloss said in a statement announcing the deal.

Paramount already has a deal with MOD Systems to sell movies through MOD kiosks that can be downloaded to SD drives for playback with compatible devices. Toshiba and MOD have announced a major push to make SD cards a standard storage device for digital movie downloads.