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With Screen Pack, AT&T challenges Netflix

AT&T has introduced a new streaming video program called Screen Pack. 

AT&T today unveiled a new video streaming platform called Screen Pack, which will soon be available to subscribers of its ²õ±ð°ù±¹¾±³¦±ð.Ìý

Screen Pack is not dissimilar to Netflix: Fork over a monthly fee – in this case, five bucks – and get unlimited access to an array of streaming movies. Among the films currently listed on the Screen Pack are "Lars and the Real Girl," "Tootsie," and "Babes in Toyland;" more titles are expected to follow.

According to AT&T, all content will stream via television sets, and also tablets and smartphones. 

"We know customers have more options than ever before to watch their favorite movies, and U-verse Screen Pack gives them a convenient and valuable way to access a large variety of movie titles, whether it’s on the device in their hand or on their big screen TV," AT&T exec Jeff Weber said in a statement. 

From today until Sunday, AT&T is offering a free trial of the Screen Pack system – provided you've already got a U-Verse account. 

The launch of Screen Pack comes at a time when an increasing number of Americans are turning away from traditional cable and toward streaming and on-demand video. Some analysts expect that mobile video will increase at least 25 percent every year for the next four years – a pretty staggering figure. Already, Netflix streaming dominates a large portion of Internet traffic in the US. 

Frost & Sullivan analyst Mike Jude Bloomberg that Screen Pack is "a smart strategy by AT&T, though ultimately they may have been forced to do it for competitive reasons. This provides incentive for U-Verse subscribers to get all their content from AT&T and not Netflix." 

In related news, Mashable that AT&T has also introduced a pair of apps, Twonky Beam and Pix & Flix, which enable U-Verse users to upload multimedia from handheld devices to their television sets. 

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