ARTS ALLIANCE MEDIA AGREES EXCLUSIVE
DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION DEAL WITH
ARTIFICIAL EYE
LONDON, 31st January, 2007 – Arts Alliance Media (AAM), Europe’s leading provider of digital film distribution services, and the UK’s leading arthouse and foreign language distributor Artificial Eye (AE) have signed an exclusive 3 year digital distribution agreement for Artificial Eye’s film releases to be made available in the UK and Ireland to download-to-rent (DTR) and download-to-own (DTO) through AAM’s online distribution channels.
AE titles, starting with the release on digital of Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, will be released in the coming months via AAM partner LOVEFiLM (www.lovefilm.com), Europe’s leading web-based home entertainment subscription service, which in turn powers film downloads from AOL (www.aol.co.uk), where the Artificial Eye content will also be available. AAM will also deliver AE content to other partners through their own video on demand network, Vizumi.
The deal was announced today by Philip Knatchbull, CEO of the Curzon Artificial Eye group (CAE) and Mark Livingstone, President of Arts Alliance Media, who commented “Artificial Eye has some great films that we are pleased to be able to bring to a wider audience who may not have had the chance to see them, but can now download them easily to their PCs or their portables.”
Philip Knatchbull is pleased to announce another step in delivering the company’s digital strategy. He said “ Curzon Artificial Eye is delighted to extend its working relationship with Arts Alliance, which already provides Curzon Cinemas’ digital projection and Newman box office system. This deal is consistent with CAE’s strategy of providing its customers with the most varied and flexible way of watching its films.”
Under the agreement, Arts Alliance Media will be responsible for digitizing, encrypting and delivering the Artificial Eye movies directly to the customers of LOVEFiLM and AOL. AAM will protect the content against theft and piracy using its own unique content security and delivery platform.
Arts Alliance Media currently carries content from Universal Pictures, Sony, Warner Bros., Momentum, Icon, Fremantle, Tartan and Discovery Networks, amongst others.
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For further information, please contact:
Kate Pidgeon: Arts Alliance Media 0207 751 7512
Steve Lewis: Artificial Eye 0207 438 9581
Notes to Editors:
About Curzon Artificial Eye
Roger Wingate of Act Entertainment Group and Philip Knatchbull of Knatchbull Communications Group are the joint owners of Curzon Artificial Eye, formed after their joint acquisition of Artificial Eye Film Company and its subsequent merger with Curzon Cinemas.
Artificial Eye is the leading arthouse and foreign language distributor in the UK with a library of over two hundred films. Curzon Cinemas owns and operates the Curzon Mayfair, Curzon Soho, The Chelsea Cinema, The Renoir and The Richmond Filmhouse, giving the group nine screens on five London sites, constituting a significant position in London’s arthouse market.
Further information: www.artificial-eye.com and www.curzoncinemas.com
About Arts Alliance Media:
- Arts Alliance Media (AAM), based in London, is Europe's leading provider of digital film distribution services, dedicated to building a European digital network to deliver film to the cinema, to the home and between industry players.
- For Video-on-Demand and Download-to-Own, AAM provides ISPs, media companies and e-tailers with turn key solutions for acquiring rights and securely distributing digital video content over the internet to their audiences.
- AAM owned LOVEFiLM, Europe's largest online DVD rental company, until the LOVEFiLM/Video Island merger in April 2006. AAM remains the largest single shareholder of LOVEFiLM International, the merged company, and provides the technology and content for digital distribution.
- For digital cinema, AAM provides end-to-end digital cinema solutions encompassing equipment selection, financing and integration, operator training, installation and support, and content management and delivery.
- In February 2005, Arts Alliance Digital Cinema won the UK Film Council contract to install and operate 240 digital screens, the world’s first 2k digital cinema network. AAM is participating in Odeon’s digital cinema trial, starting in February 2007, and also operates a 10-screen trial digital cinema network in Norway.
For more information, visit: www.artsalliancemedia.com