THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY AND TELECOM ITALIA ANNOUNCE AGREEMENT TO LAUNCH ON-DEMAND MOVIES ON ALICE HOME TV
New titles transmitted on Telecom Italia’s TV via ADSL include recent hits such as “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “Wild Hogs,” and “Déjà Vu”
The Walt Disney Company’s international TV distribution arm, Disney-ABC International Television, and Telecom Italia have concluded an agreement to offer on demand a selection of outstanding movies from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films on “Alice Home TV”, Telecom Italia’s TV via Adsl service.
This agreement is in line with Disney’s focus on the application of technology to enhance its content and expand its distribution. The deal also confirms Telecom Italia’s focus on further enriching its movie offerings broadening the family offer in particular with recent big screen releases able to satisfy different target audiences.
Thanks to this agreement, Alice Home TV’s subscribers will be able to choose from a wide selection of hit action movies and cartoons from the Disney library. Upcoming launches include recent hits such as “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” as well as “Wild Hogs”, “Déjà Vu”, “Breaking and Entering,” and for younger viewers “Pooh’s Heffalump Movie” and “Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World.”
The agreement includes important provisions for cooperation between Disney-ABC International Television and Telecom Italia against piracy of Disney-ABC International Television’s content.
Tom Toumazis, Executive Vice President and Managing Director Disney-ABC International Television Europe, Middle East, Africa & Canada, commented: “We’re delighted to close this major agreement in Italy, to bring a broad selection of our movie content to its subscribers in a flexible way. We are committed to working with strong international digital media partners to help promote and grow the use of legitimate, quality on demand services.”
“The agreement with The Walt Disney Company marks another step forward in the development of our offering of on-demand content for IPTV with the leading international majors” said Massimo Castelli, Telecom Italia Managing Director Domestic Fixed Services.
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Disney-Abc International Television
Disney-ABC International Television is the international television distribution arm of The Walt Disney Company. It licenses over 30,000 hours of programming to over 1300 broadcasters across 240 territories worldwide. Disney-ABC International Television distributes a portfolio of motion pictures from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films, network TV series, TV movies and miniseries, Disney-branded kids programming, ABC Daytime and ABC News programming as well as the Annual Academy Awards®. The company also services the distribution of the Jetix Europe portfolio internationally. Disney-ABC International Television has been expanding its business portfolio to distribute U.S.-produced reality programs and exploits reality and scripted formats for local production; including local editions of “Extreme Makeover” in the UK, India, Belgium, Scandinavia and Hungary and Colombia, “The Amazing Race” in Central Europe and Asia, and local versions of “Home Improvement” and “Hope & Faith” in Russia and Turkey respectively.
Alice Home TV
Alice Home Tv is Telecom Italia’s TV via Internet service (IPTV) which, through a regular telephone line with an ADSL connection of up to 20 megabit per second, allows users to view film, sport, news and music directly on their home TVs, and also offers Broadband internet navigation. The Alice Home TV annual offer includes approximately 3000 titles from the leading Italians and international major, of which 500 available on-demand with 200 updates a month. The service is at present available in over 250 Italian cities.
Milan, May 23rd, 2007