About 200 titles of popular content from Lionsgate are headed east thanks to a streaming video licencing deal with Youku Inc., China's leading internet television company. Youku will make films like Hotel Rwanda, Monster's Ball and Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium available to viewers on an ad-supported basis via Youku's Movies Channel in China.
"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."
Youku's Movies Channel is somewhat unique in its distribution tactics because it offers content owners the ability to set their own price for their content (or to make it free), and they also can allow content to become freely available after a set period.
Rights holders also have the option of making their titles available through Youku Premium, which offers paid on-demand and subscription-based access to ad-free, high-resolution premium content online, 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 10 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.