Bringing classic Shaw Brothers movies to networked electronics devices for the first time
Hong Kong, 18 March 2013 Celestial Pictures Limited (CPL) announced today that it has signed a multiyear distribution deal with Taiwan Mobile Co. Ltd. to make transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) available to the mobile operator’s vast customer base, allowing a new generation of movie lovers to enjoy classic Shaw Brothers hits on their networked devices at their convenience.
Under the agreement, CPL will be licensing the rights to Taiwan Mobile to distribute Shaw Brothers’ titles, such as all-time favorites “Come Drink With Me”, “The New One-Armed Swordsman”, and “Have Sword Will Travel,” via Taiwan Mobile’s myVideo over-the-top video service. The selection will be refreshed and expanded regularly with titles from CPL’s extensive Shaw Brothers Film Library.
MyVideo subscribers will be able to stream each movie for USD1.98 (NTD59) via TVOD. Standard features include unlimited viewings of a movie within a 48-hour window on subscribers’ smartphone, iPad, tablet PC or desktop after their purchase.
“We are delighted to join forces with Taiwan Mobile, the leading mobile entertainment provider, and to introduce Celestial’s Shaw Brothers Film Library to its subscribers. Taiwan is a mature market with a high penetration of smartphones, and a rapidly increasing number of 3G users. We are thrilled to enter a market with such tremendous growth potential for data intensive applications, and I am sure this move of making classic movies available on demand will be well received here.” said Ms. Kristen Tong, Head of Business and Legal Affairs of CPL.
Taiwan Mobile serves over 6.8million mobile subscribers, which represents a 35% market share and is ranked as the second largest mobile company in Taiwan. The company also enjoys the highest growth rate in portable device sales by volume. MyVideo over-the-top video service was launched in December 2012 and boasts a collection of over 1,000 films from Taiwan, Hollywood, Europe, USA, Korea and Japan. A dedicated section of Celestial’s Shaw Brothers library is available for subscribers to browse their favorite movies with ease.
This landmark deal marks the first ever CPL movie distribution over a mobile platform in Taiwan. The move highlights CPL’s continued growing presence in Asia. Celestial Pictures has also signed similar mobile VOD deals in Malaysia and Indonesia earlier.
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Media contacts
Josephine Ng
Celestial Pictures
(852) 2212-6985
josephine.ng@celestialpictures.com
About Celestial Pictures Limited
Celestial Pictures is a diversified entertainment company, with a mission of bringing the best of Asian entertainment to the world. The company focuses on the origination, aggregation and worldwide distribution of Asian-language film and television content.
Celestial Pictures owns the Shaw Brothers Film Library, which houses the world’s largest Chinese film collection of over 760 feature titles, originally released over a period of half a century. These award-winning Shaw Brothers films have been digitally restored frame-by-frame, and distributed in cinemas, on televisions and home videos, and new media markets worldwide. The company is also active in producing original filmed content and new productions based on the Shaw Brothers Film Collection.
Three Celestial branded movie channels: CELESTIAL MOVIES, CELESTIAL MOVIES ON DEMAND and CELESTIAL CLASSIC MOVIES are operated in conjunction with three other channels KIX, KIX HD and THRILL through Celestial Tiger Entertainment – a joint venture with Saban Capital Group and Lionsgate.
Headquartered in Hong Kong, Celestial Pictures is a wholly owned subsidiary of Astro Holdings.