Britain's BSkyB plans to begin a roll-out of a new service on Tuesday that will eventually make all of its programming available on mobile devices on demand. Dubbed Now TV, the service will initially stream movies to subcribers on a per-day or per-month basis. It said today (Monday) that it plans to launch sports and entertainment packages by year's end. Viewers can pay 99p (about $1.50) for older ("classic") titles to £3.49 (about $5.00) for newer ones. It also plans to offer an all-you-can-watch plan for £15 (about $23) with some titles becoming accessible "at least 12 months before they are available on other online subscription services." Pointedly, it noted that "there will be no minimm contract" to use the service. With the promotional muscle of BSkyB behind it, Now TV is expected to become a powerful competitor to similar services offered by Netflix and Amazon's LoveFilm. While those services are cheaper, they offer mostly older movies. "We don't want to replicate what LoveFilm and Netflix have done," SKyB marketing chief Stephen van Rooyen told Britain's Guardian newspaper. "We offer around 75% of the top 100 box office movies, and have rights to offer films a year before rivals. The value is in the premium quality we have."

16/07/2012