Thumbplay is taking its show on the road, so to speak. Long known for its off-deck content, the company this week announced it will be on-deck with Cellular South.

It marks the first time a U.S. carrier has engaged a direct-to-consumer content provider to populate its on-deck portal, according to Thumbplay. The big upside for Cellular South is it can offer a broad range of content that Thumbplay has already compiled – more than 100,000 pieces of licensed content, including music, videos and games, thus creating more demand for data, said Evan Schwartz, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Thumbplay.

Another plus: Thumbplay offers 24/7 customer service, and that’s a big differentiating factor, he said.

Cellular South is promoting the content at retail, so consumers can be enticed by the types of content they can access with their new phones and/or data plan. It’s also launching a Web store so customers can check out new content when they’re checking their accounts.

Thumbplay is talking with other carriers as well, he said.