Television
December 18, 2002
HDNet Licenses Its First-Ever Feature Film Package In Deal With Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution
(December 18, 2002 – Dallas, TX) - HDNet has licensed the high-definition television (HDTV) rights to an extensive selection of Warner Bros. feature films in a long-term deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution (WBDCD). The deal represents HDNet’s first-ever acquisition of a feature film package.
Under the terms of the agreement, WBDCD will provide HDNet with some 30 features films each month, which have been converted to high-definition format for broadcast on HDNet via satellite and cable distribution.
HDNet viewers will enjoy a diverse slate of popular films that will attract a wide audience. The list of titles from Warner Bros., which spans all decades of the company’s extensive 75-year library, includes Stanley Kubrick’s four-time Oscar winner “Barry Lyndon,” “A Clockwork Orange” and “Full Metal Jacket”; Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”; Clint Eastwood’s “Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser”; “A Chorus Line,” starring Michael Douglas; “The Main Event” and “Nuts” starring Barbra Streisand and five-time Academy Award winner “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe” starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
“We couldn’t be more pleased than to serve as a major supplier of programming to this exciting new network, devoted to showing our great films in a high-quality that has never before been seen by television viewers,” said Eric Frankel, President, Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution. “It is our hope that by broadening its programming line-up to include world-class films, shown in HDTV, we can help HDNet grow its channel distribution and subscriber base exponentially and that this will truly be the beginning of a long-term, mutually-beneficial relationship.”
“As a leading entertainment company, Warner Bros. is a great partner to help HDNet expand our schedule of high-quality HDTV programming for our viewers,” said Mark Cuban, co-founder and president of HDNet. “Feature films have always served as a driver in emerging media – be it pay television, cable networks, pay-per-view or VOD. We believe that by offering our viewers a slate of first-rate films, we will continue to expand HDNet’s audience and availability.”
About Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution
Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution is one of the leading suppliers of programming to the cable, broadcast, and satellite marketplaces. It licenses, markets, and distributes Warner Bros. feature films, television series, miniseries, TV movies and specials to the pay television and basic cable markets, as well as feature films to the broadcast networks. The division currently supplies programming to a dozen broadcast networks, 30 pay TV and nearly 100 basic cable networks.
About HDNet
HDNet, (www.hd.net), the leader in high definition broadcasting, produces and televises more hours of HDTV sports, entertainment and news programming each week than any other network. Live sports include National Hockey League games, U.S. Olympic Committee events, CART auto racing, boxing, college football and basketball games. Entertainment programming includes fashion shows, parades, concerts, Broadway musicals and full-length feature films. HDNet also produces original programming, including ground-breaking international news reports from Afghanistan, the Middle East, Mexico, India and Pakistan. Co-founded by Mark Cuban and General Manager Philip Garvin, HDNet is currently available on channel 199 at no charge to all DIRECTV customers with an HDTV set, receiver, and elliptical dish. # # #