By Clint Swett -- Bee Staff Writer

Published 2:15 am PST Tuesday, January 25, 2005

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Forget paying $5 to watch in-flight movies on a tiny cabin screen. Southwest Airlines wants you to watch them on your laptop.

The Dallas-based carrier today will announce a promotion with online movie company Movielink LLC giving the airline`s customers discounted movie downloads to their personal computers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

With the agreement, Southwest, the biggest carrier at Sacramento International Airport, gains a way to keep customers entertained on longer flights without investing in expensive in-cabin equipment.

It also could give the nascent movie download industry some traction in a market in which it is far outpaced by the online music business.

By going through Southwest`s Web site, consumers can get one free movie download, plus a 20 percent discount on subsequent downloads through July 31.

Customers don`t need to buy tickets on Southwest. They can go to www.southwest.com/movielink and download the feature presentation, which could take 30 minutes to 90 minutes to download.

Movielink, a consortium of major studios including MGM, Paramount and Sony, typically charges $1.99 for an older movie like Jim Carrey`s ``Liar Liar`` to $4.99 for newer releases such as ``Spider-Man 2`` before the discount.

The movies are stored on the PC - the system doesn`t work with Macintosh computers - for 30 days and can be watched an unlimited number of times within 24 hours of when the show is first started.

The airline says the deal with Movielink isn`t necessarily aimed at competing with JetBlue, which offers in-flight television on small screens embedded in each seat back.

``The customer won`t just use the download for the in-flight experience,`` said Anne Murray, Southwest`s senior director of interactive marketing. ``Some customers will work on the plane, and then watch the movies when they get to the hotel.`` She also noted that passengers on shorter flights wouldn`t have time to watch a full movie.

Murray said the bigger benefit for Southwest could be getting people to its Web site, where they might be inclined to buy a plane ticket as well as a movie.

But Joe Brancatelli, editor of the travel Web site Joesentme.com, said the move could be seen as a no-cost way to counter JetBlue`s in-flight TV and the movies shown on longer-haul flights by mainline carriers such as United Airlines.

In the face of cutthroat competition, in-flight entertainment is taking on increasing importance. JetBlue apparently thinks the $1 per passenger it costs to provide in-flight television is well worth the cost.

Alaska Airlines has little trouble getting passengers to pay $10 to rent small devices with a 7-inch screen that can contain 10 movies, television shows, music and cartoons.

American Airlines has begun testing similar gadgets on some of its flights.

``There`s still the issue of handing out expensive pieces of equipment,`` Brancatelli said. ``It`s much better if people bring their own.``

Mary Ellen Shay, a housing development consultant in Sacramento, said she would welcome the chance to watch movies during her frequent trips on Southwest.

``One of the things I look forward to when flying United is watching a movie,`` she said.

For 2-year-old Movielink, the deal means it will get noticed by 4.5 million Southwest customers who receive the company`s weekly e-mailings. The airline also will promote the Movielink deal on its Web site and at airport boarding areas.

``Southwest is a great brand to be affiliated with,`` said Alan Citron, Movielink`s vice president of marketing. ``Their customers tend to be very loyal, and we`re interested in getting in front of them.``

The promotion was announced to Southwest`s frequent fliers last week, and Citron said he`s seen a significant jump in downloads via the Southwest Web site over the weekend.

He called airline passengers ``a natural demographic`` for Movielink, and the deal could boost the company`s business well beyond the estimated 80,000 downloads it sells a month. While that seems an impressive number, it`s dwarfed by the digital music business. Apple Computer`s iTunes online music store, for instance, sells that many songs approximately every 90 minutes.

To really succeed, the industry - which also includes a company called CinemaNow - must move beyond travelers and make downloaded movies easy to watch on a television set, said Josh Martin, an analyst with IDC Research in Framingham, Mass.

Until there is mass adoption of so-called computer media centers that can send digital content to televisions, movie downloads will remain small market, he predicted.

Citron acknowledges that travelers have other options, such as watching DVDs on their laptops, though that generally requires a trip to the video rental store.

He also said the airline business isn`t enough to make movie downloading a roaring success, but it will raise customer awareness that such services are available.

``When companies are young and in a new industry, there are deals you do that you hope will move you to the next level,`` he said.