BEIJING, Mar. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Youku Inc.
(NYSE: YOKU), China's leading
internet television company, recently signed a licensing agreement
with Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), a leading diversified global
entertainment company. The deal was arranged through Celestial
Tiger Entertainment, the exclusive sales agent for Lionsgate in
Greater China and Southeast Asia. The agreement grants Youku the
right to make 200 Lionsgate titles, including Hotel Rwanda,
Monster's Ball, and Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, available to
users on an ad-supported basis via Youku's Movies Channel.
Youku's Movies Channel (http://movie.youku.com) is a curated
front-end to Youku's free and premium film content, and offers
content owners a range of options for making their work available
to viewers. In addition to choosing to set a price for their
content, content owners can opt to allow their content to become
freely available after a set period. Eleven of the 18 films with
Chinese box office revenues of more than RMB
100 million in 2011 are currently available on Youku's
Movies Channel.
"We're delighted to be able to offer Lionsgate films to our
users on an advertising-supported basis," said Zhu Huilong, Vice
president of Movie Operations and Corporate Development. "This
agreement is a chance for Youku to deepen our industry-leading
portfolio of international titles, and to broaden our partnerships
with studios as we lead the way in offering legally licensed
content online in China through a
range of free and paid models."
Rights holders also have the option of making their titles
available through Youku Premium (http://yuanxian.youku.com/), which
offers paid on-demand and subscription-based access to ad-free,
high-resolution premium content, including major new releases and
favorite classics from Chinese and international studios. Youku
Premium debuted in beta in October
2010 and has processed more than 1 million orders since
then, with an average of 60,000 paid views for each of the top ten
titles on the platform.
Youku has signed deals to license content from a number of major
international studios including Disney, Paramount, Dreamworks,
Warner Bros, and 20th Century Fox.
About Youku
Youku Inc. is China's leading
Internet television company. Our Internet television platform
enables users to search, view and share high-quality video content
quickly and easily across multiple devices. Youku, which stands for
"what's best and what's cool" in Chinese, is the most recognized
online video brand in China.
Youku's American depositary shares, each representing 18 of our
Class A ordinary shares, are traded on NYSE under the symbol
"YOKU."
About Lionsgate
Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a
strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and
distribution, television programming and syndication, home
entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution. new
channel platforms and international distribution and sales. The
Company has built a strong television presence in production of
prime time cable and broadcast network series, distribution and
syndication of programming and an array of channel assets.
Lionsgate currently has 15 shows on more than 10 networks spanning
its prime time production, distribution and syndication businesses,
including such critically-acclaimed hits as the multiple Emmy
Award-winning "Mad Men", "Weeds" and "Nurse Jackie" along with the
Golden Globe-winning drama "Boss" and the syndication successes
"Tyler Perry's House Of Payne", its
spinoff "Meet The Browns", "The Wendy Williams Show" and "Are We
There Yet?".
Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent
successes as THE LINCOLN LAWYER, TYLER
PERRY'S MADEA'S BIG HAPPY FAMILY, THE EXPENDABLES, MARGIN
CALL, THE LAST EXORCISM and the critically-acclaimed PRECIOUS. With
the January 2012 acquisition of
Summit Entertainment, the Company now has the two leading young
adult franchises – the blockbuster TWILIGHT SAGA, which has grossed
more than $2.5 billion at the
worldwide box office, and the HUNGER GAMES franchise, whose first
film will be released on March 23. Recent Summit hits include
RED, LETTERS TO JULIET, KNOWING, the STEP UP franchise and the
Academy Award winning Best Picture THE HURT LOCKER.
Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in
box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rate.
Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of
approximately 13,000 motion picture and television titles. The
Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original,
daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
About Celestial Tiger Entertainment
CELESTIAL TIGER ENTERTAINMENT (CTE) is a diversified media
company dedicated to entertaining audiences in Asia and beyond. The company focuses on the
operation of branded pay television channels, content creation and
content distribution targeted at Asian consumers.
CTE operates a powerful bouquet of distinct pay television
channels including: CELESTIAL MOVIES, the most broadly distributed
24-hour Chinese and Asian movies channel in the world; CELESTIAL
CLASSIC MOVIES, the gateway to an unparalleled array of Chinese
movie masterpieces; CELESTIAL MOVIES ON DEMAND, Celestial's
subscription video on demand service; KIX, the ultimate in action
entertainment; Thrill, Asia's only
horror and suspense movie channel; and KIX HD, featuring the best
of action with a late-night dose of thrillers in high
definition.
As one of Asia's largest
vertically integrated entertainment companies, CTE produces
original content which complements its channels business. CTE is
also the exclusive sales agent of content in all media in
Southeast Asia and China from independent Hollywood studio Lionsgate.
Headquartered in Hong Kong, CTE
is a joint venture among Saban Capital Group, a leading private
investment firm specializing in the media, entertainment and
communications industries; Celestial Pictures, a major Asian
entertainment company wholly-owned by Astro, the owner and operator
of the leading DTH platform in Malaysia; and Lionsgate, the world's largest
independent filmed entertainment studio.
For more information,
please contact:
|
Jean Shao
|
Director, International
Communications
|
Youku Inc.
|
Tel: +86-10-5885-1881
x7128
shaodan@youku.com
|
|
For Lionsgate corporate
inquiries, please contact:
|
Peter D.
Wilkes
|
310-255-3726
|
pwilkes@lionsgate.com
|
SOURCE Youku Inc.