MGM International Television Distribution, a unit of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, has agreed to supply T-Online International AG with theatrically released features for T-Online's video-on-demand service.
"We are very proud to have signed up MGM for our video-on-demand service," said T-Online International Chief Media Officer Burkhard Graßmann. "The company is renowned all over the world for its movies and has an excellent range of blockbuster movies on offer, which we can now make available to our customers."
"This landmark agreement speaks to the promising future of video-on-demand worldwide," said Jim Griffiths, president of MGM Worldwide Television Distribution. "We are pleased to partner with T-Online, Germany's largest Internet Service Provider. This groundbreaking delivery platform gives German consumers an entirely new way to watch their favorite MGM movies."
T-Online will provide a range of high-speed Internet and other services on TV to customers, using a set-top box called the ACTIVY Media Center. The ACTIVY, manufactured by Fujitsu Siemens Computers and available through consumer electronics stores, runs the T-Online Vision on TV, which will be launched by year's end.
MGM will supply the ACTIVY's video-on-demand service with films previously released in U.S. and German theaters. Movies are downloaded and stored in a piracy-protected format on the ACTIVY until users pay to watch them on their TV set. The VOD service opens new sales opportunities for movie studios in Germany, already one of the world's most important film markets.
With the ACTIVY and the T-Online Vision on TV, users can access e-mail, news and information on entertainment, sports, movies, music and games through their TV. The ACTIVY also provides an electronic program guide and personal-video-recorder capabilities. A time-shifting function allows viewers to pause a live program, then resume watching it later.
Through the deal, T-Online gains access to MGM's 4,000-title library, the world's largest collection of modern-era films. Movies in the library include Legally Blonde, Get Shorty, The Birdcage, Thelma & Louise, Rain Man, The Silence of the Lambs, Fargo, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Midnight Cowboy, Moonstruck, West Side Story, The Manchurian Candidate, 19 Woody Allen pictures, and the Rocky and Pink Panther franchises.
