ARTS ALLIANCE MEDIA AND SONY PICTURES
TELEVISION INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCE
VIDEO ON DEMAND (VOD) DISTRIBUTION DEAL
LONDON, 3rd August 2006 – Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) and Arts Alliance Media (AAM), Europe’s leading provider of digital film distribution services, have signed an agreement that will make movies such as The Da Vinci Code and The Producers available to download to rent online. The Video-on-Demand deal was announced today by Stuart Baxter, Senior Vice President of European Sales Distribution for SPTI and Howard Kiedaisch, CEO, Arts Alliance Media.
The agreement sees Arts Alliance Media having rights to digitally distribute 180 of Sony Pictures’ back catalogue titles, including classics such as Taxi Driver and Gandhi and new releases over the next three years including the highly anticipated return of Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in Spider-Man 3.
The films will be available from AAM’s download partners, LOVEFiLM (www.lovefilm.com), Europe’s leading download and DVD rental site, and AOL (www.aol.co.uk), which has over 2.2 million members in the UK.
“With our new Digital Initiatives team, we are aggressively exploring VOD and Electronic-Sell-Through opportunities across Europe,” commented Baxter, SPTI. “We are excited about working with AAM and LOVEFiLM to reach new digital audiences all over the UK with a strong selection of compelling feature film content.”
Kiedaisch said: “We are delighted that Sony Pictures is joining our ever growing stable of content from the likes of Warner Brothers, Universal, Momentum, Tartan and Fremantle. It’s great that once again Arts Alliance Media has concluded a deal with one of the major studios and I think it speaks volumes about our capabilities and intent."
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For further information, please contact:
Kate Pidgeon
Arts Alliance Media
kate@artsalliancemedia.com
0207 751 7512
Gemma Richardson
Arts Alliance Media
gemma@artsalliancemedia.com
0207 751 7466
Ron Sato
Sony Pictures Television International
ron_sato@spe.sony.com
Tel: +1-310-244-4687
Notes to Editors
About Sony Pictures Television International
Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) is the division of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) responsible for all television business outside of the United States. SPTI operates three complementary lines of business: 1) distribution of SPE’s feature films and television programming to television, mobile and digital content delivery outlets around the world, 2) local television production in key international markets, and 3) international television networks. In addition to being a leader in the distribution of current and classic U.S. and international films and television product worldwide, SPTI produces high profile, locally produced television in local languages. With dedicated offices in France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Miami (Latin America), the People's Republic of China, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom, SPTI currently oversees production in nine regions of the world and is the leader in international television production among all major Hollywood studios. SPTI's worldwide television networks portfolio is a key strategy in the SPE's long-range commitment to the global marketplace, with over 40 networks in more than 100 countries reaching over 240 million viewers worldwide. SPTI is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company.
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 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.
- 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. To date, since October 2005, 69 screens have been installed and 54 titles and 12,000 digital shows have been played on AAM’s UK network. In April 2006, AAM expanded its digital cinema network into Europe, beginning with a 10-screen trial rollout in Norway.
- AAM is the largest shareholder in LOVEFiLM, Europe’s largest online DVD rental company 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 is LOVEFiLM’s digital content aggregator.
- 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 Entertainment, Prepay Technologies, Player X and Servista.
For more information, visit: www.artsalliancemedia.com