Television
April 3, 2007
E-Vision Signs Pay-Per-View Deal With Warner Bros. International Television Distribution
(3 April 2007 - Dubai and Burbank, CA) – Emirates Cable TV and Multimedia (E-Vision) have signed an agreement with Warner Bros. International Television Distribution (WBITD) to bring feature films from Warner Bros. to viewers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The partnership allows E-Vision to show the latest blockbuster movies and offer them through its pay-per-view service (eView) from April, it was announced today by Humaid Sahoo, CEO of E-Vision, and Jeffrey R. Schlesinger, President, Warner Bros. International Television.
This agreement, negotiated on behalf of WBITD by Philip Goodhew, Director of Business Development, allows E-Vision to provide the latest titles—including "Superman Returns," "Flags of Our Fathers" and Oscar®-winning movies "Happy Feet" and "The Departed"—to all customers in the UAE. The launch of the first title under the agreement is expected to take place on 4 April 2007. The service will also show movies from the expansive Warner Bros. Entertainment library, including the "Lord of the Rings" and "Matrix" trilogies.
Commenting on the deal, Sahoo said: “This deal is fantastic for E-Vision consumers. Bringing the latest blockbuster movies to the UAE complements our objective of delivering the best quality content to our customers. E-Vision cautiously chooses its offerings in line with customer feedback and requests to guarantee that all its offerings completely comply with its customers’ needs.”
He added: “This initiative is expected to witness great response from all our customers, especially that it delivers exclusive titles from one of the leading studios in Hollywood.”
“We are excited to join forces with E-Vision and to make eView a pay-per-view home for Warner Bros. films in the UAE,” said Schlesinger. “We look forward to a long and successful partnership, bringing world-class motion pictures to viewers throughout the UAE.”
Kamal Nassif, E-Vision Pay-Per-View Manager, said: “With this agreement, eView, the pay-per-view service from E-Vision, has become more than a means to provide great movies; it has become more about convenience and choice. The best Hollywood blockbusters are now at hand for all E-Vision customers and at any time they desire.”
E-Vision is a subsidiary of the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) and the premier cable TV provider in the UAE. The company was established in 2000 and its services currently reach more than 400,000 homes across the UAE.
About Warner Bros. International Television Distribution
Warner Bros. International Television Distribution is one of the world's largest distributors of feature films, television programs and animation to the international television marketplace (broadcast, pay cable, basic cable, satellite, pay-per-view, video-on-demand, digital platforms, etc.). It licenses some 50,000 hours of programming (including more than 6,000 features and 74 current series), dubbed or subtitled in more than 40 languages, to telecasters and cablecasters in more than 175 countries.
About e-vision
E-Vision was established in April 2000 as the UAE’s only cable provider, and is a subsidiary of the Emirates Telecommunication’s corporation.
With an initial coverage of 20,000 homes, E-Vision’s services currently reach 300,000 homes across five emirates: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Al Ain and Ajman, with a solid 500,000 viewers.
E-Vision has partnerships with major entertainment providers such as Arab Digital Distribution (ADD), Showtime and Orbit, in addition to four channels of its own in e-junior, the kids channel; e-View, the Pay Per View service; e-Games, the interactive channel; and the Information Channel.
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