Movies the size of your thumb!

Or, more realistically, your iPhone; maybe size doesn't matter after all:

As Hollywood shrinks its films and television shows for the small screens of cellphones, its assumptions about mobile viewing are being upended by surprisingly patient consumers.

“We all thought they’d be watching video clips in the checkout line or between classes,” said Vivi Zigler, the president for digital entertainment at NBC Universal, summing up the industry’s conventional wisdom. But owners of iPhones and other smartphones are actually watching long episodes and sometimes complete films, so a growing number of media companies are vying for people’s mobile attention spans.

So far, mobile viewing revenues are far less than those of TV, movies, and videogames. Most content is streamed for free from sites like Hulu.com. But that looks to be short-lived. Look for more subscriber services such as Flo TV or Bitbop, which charge a monthly flat fee of @$10/month, in the future.

What amazes me, though, is that people have time to watch a full-length episode of "The Office" while on the go (hopefully not while driving). How does this work? Do that many people take long bus rides? Have to wait at the doctor's office for half an hour or more? Just plunk down on a public bench to watch some TV?