MUMBAI: Until now viewers relied on the boob tube to watch soaps. But it won't remain so for long as now with soaps being made available on mobile phones, people can watch them on their phone where ever they are.

Global production factory Endemol has sold its comic strip-style MMS (multimedia service) soap FanTESStic to territories like - Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. The company sold FanTESStic into Spain, the UK, Ireland, Chile and Argentina earlier this year.

Produced by Endemol Netherlands, the interactive mobile series was initially brought to the Spanish market by the mobile arm of Endemol's parent company Telefonica.

Endemol has also previously sold to the UK and Ireland (via Vodafone) and Italy, and is now set for a Mexican launch later this year following a deal recently closed with mobile content provider Naranja.

The Australian and New Zealand deals are with Slice Wireless.

The interactive photo/comic strip series is a subscription-based service, comprising three MMS messages and five images a week. It is especially made for MMS phones and is currently not available in any other format.

The series consists of 80 episodes, in which a real person with genuine human emotions tells her story against the backdrop of a virtual world, with virtual scenery and virtual situations. Endemol says that FanTESStic is flexible in that it allows the storyline and type of subscription to be suited to suit local preferences and target groups.

FanTESStic will cost $6.60 for three episodes per week.

Following the launch in Australia and New Zealand, FanTESStic is now available in seven countries. Story lines and forms of subscription can be adapted to local preferences and target groups.