Television
March 6, 2007
Vivodi Telecommunications And Warner Bros. International Television Distribution Sign Multi-Year Video-On-Demand Deal To Bring Feature Films From Warner Bros. To Greek Television Via “cableTV”
(March 6, 2007 - Burbank, CA and Athens, Greece) — Warner Bros. International Television Distribution (WBITD) and Vivodi Telecommunications have entered into a multiyear video-on-demand (VOD) agreement for theatrical motion pictures from Warner Bros., it was announced today by Jeffrey R. Schlesinger, President, Warner Bros. International Television, and Mrs. Sofia Kounenaki-Efraimoglou, Chairman and CEO, Vivodi Telecommunications.
The pact —negotiated on behalf of WBITD by Sales Manager Angel Yllera— provides Vivodi with the Greek VOD rights to a slate of new feature films distributed to the international television marketplace by WBITD, as well as a number of recent and classic movies from the vast Warner Bros. Entertainment library.
The titles licensed by Vivodi under terms of the agreement will premiere in early spring 2007 on “cableTV,” Vivodi’s new VOD service, which launched in February 2007 as the most competitive and complete “Triple Play” package in the Greek marketplace.
The Warner Bros. VOD library on “cableTV” will offer viewers their choice of recent WBITD releases such as “The Departed,” that has swept the board at this year's Oscars, as well as the Academy Award® nominees “Superman Returns” and “Poseidon,” among others. Other prominent titles from the Warner Bros. Entertainment library available on “cableTV” will include the “Harry Potter” films, “The Perfect Storm,” “Proof of Life,” “Pay It Forward” and “Any Given Sunday.”
“Our goal at Vivodi is the telecommunication innovation,” pinpointed Mrs. Kounenaki-Efraimoglou, “a target that marks both our strategy and decision making. Today, the Vivodi brand is strongly related to the ‘next step’ in the Greek market, providing the widest selection of VOD content. We are thrilled by our cooperation with Warner Bros. International Television, a development offering, at the same time, a solid competitive advantage to ‘cableTV.’ ”
“The consumer desire for VOD continues to increase in this ever-changing entertainment marketplace,” said Mr. Schlesinger. “This agreement with Vivodi underscores our commitment to VOD, and we are thrilled to be delivering some of the world’s most compelling and popular motion pictures to television viewers in Greece.”
The WBITD deal is the second major content agreement for Vivodi regarding “cableTV.” The first was with Prooptiki, during the launch of the pilot phase of the service in the summer of 2006.
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 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 cablecasters in more than 175 countries.
About Vivodi Telecommunications
Founded in March 2001, Vivodi Telecommunications is the first private telecommunications provider in Greece offering to both residential and business customers a wide range of innovative telecommunication services. It is the first company in Greece that developed a privately owned DSL network launching innovative fixed telephony and Broadband Internet services. Vivodi is established as a pioneer in the Greek market, delivering Double and Triple Play services in up to 24Mbps data transfer speed, through the largest privately owned LLU based ADSL2+ telecommunications network.
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