NBCUniversal, China's Youku Reach Online VOD Deal

7:36 AM PDT 7/9/2012 by Georg Szalai

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Films covered by the agreement include new fare, such as "Safe House," "The Lorax" and "Battleship," and library titles like "Schindler's List" and "The Mummy."

NBCUniversal and Chinese online video giant Youku have struck a multiyear content agreement for video-on-demand rights in China to a broad collection of current, library and upcoming NBCUniversal feature films.

Youku previously had signed licensing deals with Disney, Viacom's Paramount, DreamWorks, Time Warner's Warner Bros. and News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox.

Financial details of the NBCU agreement weren't disclosed.

The films covered by the arrangement between Youku and NBCUniversal International Television Distribution include Schindler's List, The Mummy and its sequels, Jurassic Park and its sequels, Apollo 13, Trainspotting, Being John Malkovich and The Big Lebowski.

They will be available through the Youku Premium services, the Chinese firm said.

In addition to a yearly rotating selection of more than 100 library titles, the deal covers such new films as Contraband, Safe House, The Lorax, Battleship and Snow White and The Huntsman. These new titles will appear on Youku's platform for paid on-demand viewing after their China theatrical releases.

"Youku has been steadily broadening and deepening our partnerships with Chinese and international studios," said Huilong Zhu, Youku's vp movie operations and corporate development. "Our new agreement with NBCUniversal is one more step forward toward our goal of offering the highest-quality content to Youku's more than 300 million viewers."

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai