LONDON, U.K. – Corus Entertainment’s production division Nelvana today announced a new video on demand agreement with British Telecommunications.
Coming on the heels of recent North American partnerships with Comcast and Rogers (along with Corus’ preschool broadcaster Treehouse), this deal widens the scope of Nelvana’s on-demand initiatives to include Europe.
Maggie and the Ferocious Beast (eps 1-15), Little Bear (eps 1-15), Babar (eps 1-15), Max & Ruby (eps 1-15) and The Fairly OddParents (eps 1-15) will be among the initial family entertainment programs Nelvana will make available to BT’s next-generation broadband IPTV offering, slated to launch by late summer/fall 2006.
BT customers will be able to choose from a huge range of on-demand film, music and television programming combined with a groundbreaking interactive and communications service all available on their TV sets, with no mandatory monthly subscription fee.
“The service will be a world-first, combining access to digital terrestrial channels through the aerial with broadband-powered video-on-demand. This unique combination, in a single set top box by Philips, will allow customers choice, control and convenience,” says the press release.
"It’s an exciting time for content producers as the promise of on-demand services and next-generation TV platforms is realized through providers such as BT," said Doug Murphy, Nelvana’s executive vice-president of business development. "This deal opens the European video-on-demand market to Nelvana’s deep library of animated family programming."
