FlickRocket, an online video distribution platform, is letting people distribute their content and extend their audience via the iPhone and iPod touch platforms.

Content owners can define the price and license scheme, such as rental or download-to-own. The video makers will also be able to set advanced options such as secure burning to DVD or export to mobile devices.

“The two main reasons [for iPhone and iPod touch support] are one, making film purchases more attractive by enabling customers to transfer and use them to all devices they own,” said Michael Schmidt, vice president of marketing at FlickRocket, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. “And two, to reach a wider customer audience, which in case of the iPhone has an over-proportional interest in electronic media.”

FlickRocket is a DVD distribution platform for integration on content owner’s Web sites.

Mobile helps the video star
The platform is generally used by small or medium-sized content owners who want to distribute their content directly from their Web site to a worldwide audience.

FlickRocket supports Windows, DVD players, portable media players, navigation systems, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile phones, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices, Google’s Android devices, feature phones and the Sony PlayStation.

With the addition of the iPhone and iPod touch, content providers are now able to sell their content to almost all devices capable of playing video.

The content owners can secure their video by Digital Rights Management.

Support for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch has been added through the My Movies application. The application is a free download in the App Store.

Mr. Schmidt said PC-only film downloads do not offer the same flexibility as physical DVDs because consumers cannot take them on the go.

Enabling the iPod for watching films or just use it as transfer device gives consumers on-the-go flexibility.

FlickRocket’s typical consumers are male and between 25-45 years old, but certain shops have a different demographic – it depends on the content.

Mr. Schmidt said iPhone and iPod touch support is immediately available to all FlickRocket clients and is now a default feature for every new piece of content put into the system.

“Reaching more consumers is certainly important,” Mr. Schmidt said. “However, in case of the iPhone I think it is probably even more important to reach exactly these customers – on average iPhone users consume more content and are more willing to pay for content than the average cell phone owner.”