Television
April 25, 2006
Telekom Austria Signs Multi-Year Video On Demand Agreement With Warner Bros. International Television Distribution For Slate Of Theatrical Motion Pictures To Premiere On aonDigital TV
(April 25, 2006 - Burbank, CA and Vienna, Austria) - Warner Bros. International Television Distribution (WBITD) has signed a multi-year video on demand (VOD) agreement with Telekom Austria (VSE: TKA, NYSE: TKA) and its aonDigital TV service, it was announced today by Jeffrey R. Schlesinger, President, Warner Bros. International Television and Stefan Tweraser, Head of Marketing Retail and Media Internet, Telekom Austria.
The pact, negotiated on behalf of WBITD by Sylvia Rothblum, Managing Director, German Speaking Territories, gives Telekom Austria the Austrian VOD rights to new theatrical motion pictures distributed by WBITD, as well as titles from the Studio’s expansive library.
Current Warner Bros.-distributed titles now available on aonDigital TV include “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” starring Johnny Depp, and “The Island,” starring Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor. In the coming months, additional Warner Bros. films will become available via the service, including “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” premiering in late June, and the political thriller “Syriana,” starring Academy Award winners George Clooney and Matt Damon, premiering in the fall.
Other major films from the Warner Bros. library currently available to Austrian viewers via the aonDigital TV videotheque include “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Batman Forever,” Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the romantic comedy “You’ve Got Mail,” starring two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
“We are pleased to be in business with Telekom Austria and look forward to a successful partnership working with them to provide Austrian viewers with access to one of the most prestigious and popular collections of current and library films in the world,” said Schlesinger.
“We are happy to be able to offer our customers an even larger and more diverse selection of international films on aonDigital TV through this agreement with Warner Bros. International Television,” said Stefan Tweraser. “With Warner Bros., we have succeeded in bringing one of the biggest players in the international film industry on board our TV services."
Austrian viewers who opt for cable TV from Telekom Austria by June 30, 2006 can enjoy significant savings. Installation of aonDigital TV is free during the promotion. The set-top box costs EUR 59.90 instead of EUR 139.90 and access to aonDigital TV's basic package with over 40 free TV channels is available for EUR 14.90 per month. In addition to the promotion, viewers can get top premium channels for EUR 7.90 per month. aonDigital TV is currently available in Vienna only, providing that the right technical and operational prerequisites exist. Within the course of the year Telekom Austria plans to offer aonDigital TV in additional regions, mostly in metropolitan areas.
Further information is available at the hotline 0800 100 100 or on www.aondigital.tv. Additionally, at www.telekom.at you will find the current description of services and terms of charges.
About WBITD
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 48,000 hours of programming (including more than 6,000 features and 74 current series), dubbed or subtitled in more than 40 languages, to telecasters and cable casters in more than 175 countries.
About Telekom Austria
Telekom Austria is Austria's leading provider of telecommunications services. It was listed on the Vienna and New York stock exchanges in November 2000. The Group has two main business areas: the wireline segment encompasses fixed line telephony, data and Internet, and the wireless segment covers mobile communications. Telekom Austria has international operations in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Liechtenstein. http://www.telekom.at
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