Hansenet Telekommunikation GmbH And Warner Bros. International Television Announce Multiyear Video-On-Demand Agreement To Bring Movies From Warner Bros. To German Television
(March 12, 2007 - Hamburg and Burbank, CA) — Alice meets "Harry Potter" on German television through a multiyear video-on-demand (VOD) agreement for theatrical motion pictures between HanseNet Telekommunikation GmbH and Warner Bros. International Television Distribution (WBITD), it was announced today by Michele Novelli, Marketing Director at HanseNet Telekommunikation GmbH, and Jeffrey R. Schlesinger, President, Warner Bros. International Television.
The agreement—negotiated on behalf of WBITD by Sylvia Rothblum, Managing Director, German-Speaking Territories—gives Telekommunikation’s Alice homeTV digital service the German VOD rights to new feature films distributed to the international TV marketplace by WBITD, in addition to a number of recent and classic motion pictures from the Warner Bros. Entertainment library. More than 100 films are included in the pact.
Beginning immediately, the VOD platform of Alice homeTV will feature recent releases such as "The Good German," from Academy Award®-winning director Steven Soderbergh and starring Oscar® winner George Clooney, and "Snakes on a Plane," starring Samuel L. Jackson, among others. Prominent titles from the Warner Bros. library will also be available at launch, including such diverse pictures as "The Matrix" and "The Matrix Reloaded," "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," "Dr. Zhivago" and "Free Willy," among many others.
Later this year, Alice homeTV will premiere the recently named Best Picture and Best Animated Feature at the 79th Academy Awards®:
• "The Departed," starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson and winner of four Oscars®, including Best Picture, Director (Martin Scorsese), Adapted Screenplay and Editing
• "Happy Feet," in which the musically challenged emperor penguin Mumbles dances his way into viewers’ hearts and all the way to an Oscar® for Best Animated Feature
“We are proud to partner with such an internationally renowned company as Warner Bros., one of the most successful and productive studios in Hollywood,” said Novelli.
“We’re thrilled to be in business with HanseNet Telekommunikation to provide world-class entertainment to German viewers through the Alice homeTV VOD service,” said Schlesinger.
Besides providing a joint portal and films, the pact calls for a comprehensive collaboration on counteracting internet piracy between Alice and Warner Bros. Alice will monitor advertising for illegal content and will collaborate with Warner Bros. in matters of educating consumers about piracy and on campaigns to protect intellectual property.
About Alice
Alice stands for simple and transparent products, favourable and above all service-oriented structure and fair service. Alice is the label for all products of HanseNet Telekommunikation GmbH. The company was founded in 1995 in Hamburg. HanseNet bustles a highly modern net with telephony services, traditional line and data connections and internet services for 3.2 million business and private clients. Since the beginning of 2005 HanseNet is expanding consistently its Alice offers. Its turnover could be raised from € 103 millions (2003) over € 161.1 millions (2004) to € 292.5 millions (2005) in the last four years. In the third quarter of 2006 it increased to € 375 millions. Sole shareholder is Telecom Italia. Further information about HanseNet, Alice and Alice-Business can be obtained on www.alice-dsl.de / www.alice-business.de or via both free of charge hotlines, reachable from German conventional telephone network – 0800 4110411 (private clients) and 0800 4141411 (business clients).
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.
# # #