Television
September 2, 2005
Warner Bros. International Television Distribution Signs VOD Deal With T-Online In Germany
(September 2, 2005 – Burbank, CA) – Warner Bros. International Television Distribution has signed a multi-year deal to provide content to T-Online for its broadband VOD service in Germany, it was announced today by Jeffrey Schlesinger, President, Warner Bros. International Television Distribution and Burkhard Grassmann, board member for marketing at T-Online International AG.
Beginning in September, a number of Warner Bros. Studio’s most popular films will be available on T-Online’s broadband VOD service (www.vod.t-online.de), including the Harry Potter films, The Matrix trilogy, “Ocean’s Twelve” and “The Polar Express,” as well as classic library titles, including “Gone with the Wind.” New Releases will become available to T-Online concurrent with their pay-per-view window. T-Online also plans to add at least 100 library titles each year to the service.
“We’re excited to be in business with T-Online, a leader in the VOD arena in Germany, and especially pleased with the level of copyright protection this deal includes,” said Schlesinger. “This agreement incorporates a number of anti-piracy measures and procedures that reflect Warner Bros. and T-Online’s cooperation in and commitment to actively deal with online piracy while offering consumers an attractive, affordable and legitimate alternative to illegal p2p file sharing.”
“T-Online is the leader in VOD in Germany and a great partner to be in business with,” said Sylvia Rothblum, Managing Director, German-Speaking Territories, Warner Bros. International Television Distribution, who negotiated the deal on behalf of Warner Bros. “Fans will now have access to one of Hollywood’s most prestigious and popular collections of current and library films.
“Our Video on Demand service is made still more attractive by the partnership with Warner Bros.,” said Grassmann. “This contract assures T-Online not only a wealth of first-class library titles, but also new films which, experience has shown, are most frequently in demand by customers and thus of great significance for further development of the online distribution channel.”
“We have worked very systematically for many months to reach an agreement with Warner Bros. International Television,” says Peter Kerckhoff, Head of Product Marketing & Content Sourcing at T-Online. “We have succeeded in achieving this and are proud to now have six of the eight Hollywood major studios under contract, thus enabling us to offer our customers a unique film selection.”
This deal represents WBITV’s continuing expansion into broadband VOD, joining the company’s recent VOD agreements with Telecom Italia for programming via its Rosso Alice portal in Italy and the Nordic service SF Anytime with subscribers in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
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