ARTS ALLIANCE MEDIA ACCELERATES PAN-EUROPEAN
EXPANSION BY TAKING STAKE IN
LA BANQUE AUDIOVISUELLE,
LEADING FRENCH VIDEO-ON-DEMAND INDEPENDENT
LONDON, 13th July 2006 - Arts Alliance Media (AAM), Europe’s leading provider of digital film distribution services, has announced an investment in Paris-based La Banque Audiovisuelle, the owner of the French Video-on-Demand (VOD) portal VODEO.TV, with an option to acquire the company within the next 12 months.
The deal will allow both companies to be more competitive and work together to further their shared digital distribution ambitions in VOD, Download-to-Own and Digital Cinema. With this investment, AAM gains another key strategic outpost for its European digital cinema network rollout, already underway in the UK and Norway, as well as its rapidly growing VOD and Download-to-Own business.
Howard Kiedaisch, Chief Executive Officer of Arts Alliance Media said “This gives us a strong foothold in France and broader European positioning. Frédéric Pie and his team have done a great job of building a unique offering of audio visual content to the fast moving French marketplace, and we’re looking forward to working with him and helping their business grow.”
La Banque Audiovisuelle was formed initially to make publicly available thousands of documentaries and popular television programmes through its VOD platform – VODEO.TV. Today, LBA enables audiences to view or purchase more than 2,200 programs via remote loading, streaming or DVD-on-Request. VODEO.TV currently offers primarily French language documentary content and this new partnership with Arts Alliance Media will allow LBA to leverage AAM’s studio ties and trusted partner status to expand into film content.
“La Banque Audiovisuelle is happy to welcome AAM as a leading investor and strategic partner. AAM is currently the most dynamic European player in the digital film distribution sector to the general public, and has consolidated this position as principal shareholder of LOVEFILM, European N°1 in online DVD rental, with more than 400,000 subscribers. We share the same vision for the future of film distribution and audio-visual programs and will share our know-how to develop an even broader and more attractive offer for our customers,” explained Frédéric Pie, President of the La Banque Audiovisuelle.
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. To date, since October 2005, 50 titles and 11,110 digital shows have been played on the UK Digital Screen Network. In April 2006, AAM expanded its digital cinema network into Europe, beginning with a 10-screen trial rollout in Norway.
AAM founded LOVEFiLM, one of Europe’s largest online DVD rental companies and the first player to expand into Europe with the acquisition of Swedish online DVD rental company Boxman (www.lovefilm.se) and also operates as LOVEFiLM in Denmark (www.lovefilm.dk). In December 2005 LOVEFiLM and Arts Alliance Media launched the first UK mass market movie download service to its UK subscriber base in addition to its download-to-rent service to AOL UK customers. LOVEFiLM also launched Europe’s first download-to-own service, in partnership with NBC Universal, for the release of King Kong on April 10th 2006.
LOVEFiLM and Video Island, the owner of ScreenSelect.co.uk, merged in April 2006. AAM remains the largest single shareholder of LOVEFiLM and serves as its digital content aggregator.
- ends -
For further information, please contact
Arts Alliance Media:
Kate Pidgeon
kate@artsalliancemedia.com
+44 (0) 207 751 7512
Gemma Richardson
gemma@artsalliancemedia.com
+44 (0) 207 751 7466
Rue du Louvre:
David Sablon
ds@ruedulouvre.fr
+33 (0)1 40 13 75 40
Nathalie Merle
nm@ruedulouvre.fr
+33 (0)1 40 13 94 96
Notes to Editors:
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 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.
For Video-on-Demand and Download-To-Own, AAM provides ISP's, 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 is part of the Arts Alliance group of companies. Arts Alliance focuses on technology-enabled service and media companies and supports a growing network of entrepreneurs in Europe. Past investments include Lastminute.com (sold to Travelocity) and Spinner (sold to Time Warner). Current companies include Smartjog, Atom Entertainnment, Prepay Technologies, Player X and Servista.
For more information, visit: www.artsalliancemedia.com
About La Banque Audiovisuelle
La Banque Audiovisuelle (LBA) manages and develops audio-visual and post-televsion-broadcast content, working within the contractual constraints attached to each program, to distribute to the general public via Video-on-Demand or DVD-on-Demand through its website VODEO.TV or via site partners (portals, search engines and media sites). La Banque Audiovisuelle is one of the principal French players in the development of technical solutions for digitization, storage and distribution of content via the Internet. For this reason, LBA conceives, develops and ensures leading maintenance and VOD marketing platforms for rights holders eager to develop their audio-visual content.