X

M-Go offers on-demand and UltraViolet on TVs, tablets

M-Go is a new competitor to Amazon and Vudu that offers on-demand TV and movie streaming to tablets and compatible televisions.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
See full bio
Ty Pendlebury
2 min read
M-Go is available on several platforms, including Mac, PC, Google TV, and Samsung tablets. Ty Pendlebury/CNET

A new on-demand streaming video service called M-Go is coming to a TV or tablet near you and promises user-friendly features and UltraViolet support.

M-Go offers movies and TV shows on a "pay per play" or download (SD/HD) basis and will be available from January 2013 on televisions from Samsung (2012/2013 models), Vizio, and LG (coming later in April), plus Samsung tablets (now) and most Web browsers.

The service boasts content from most popular movie studios -- Paramount, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. -- with the exception of Disney, which just signed an exclusive deal with Netflix. However, M-Go's chief media officer, Ted Hong, said that this deal doesn't affect M-Go directly, as the company offers a transactional service, similar to DVD. Hong said that additional content deals with studios such as Lionsgate are in development.

Uniquely, if M-­Go doesn't have the movie you are after, it will suggest other competing services that do, including Amazon, iTunes, Netflix, and Vudu.

The user interface is quite stark, just purple "cards" on a white background, but Hong said this makes it "people-friendly."

"One of the things we've differentiated ourselves on is a really clean, simple user interface; not just a wall of box art," Hong said.

The service went live in a "public beta" as of January 4, but Hong said there will be no official launch as such.

"We think of ourselves as a service, not a store; the world doesn't need another store," Hong said. "We really want to be the hub and the starting point for all of your digital entertainment. Day one, it's about movies and TV shows for rent or purchase, but live TV is on the roadmap."

Hong said M-Go uses the same technology that is behind Lovefilm in the U.K., as both were developed by M-Go's founder, Technicolor.

Users of the service can create up to five additional profiles per account and include parental controls.

Previously, the UltraViolet movie locker service was only available to select users, but M-­Go supports multiple digital lockers including UltraViolet. Other current services that include UV lockers are Vudu and Flixster.