Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, the studio behind the Hunger Games films, will launch a subscription streaming service in China, the firms said in a statement yesterday.
The service, to be known as Lionsgate Entertainment World, will be exclusive to Alibaba’s Internet television set-top boxes and is expected to launch in August, the firms said.
It will give users access to Lions Gate content, including several titles from the Twilight and Hunger Games series, as well as television series Mad Men.
Alibaba and its affiliates have aggressively pushed into the entertainment industry since the beginning of the year, with more than US$3 billion invested since March.
The Hangzhou-based firm is looking to move beyond traditional e-commerce, offering more digital products like films, games and television.
“This cooperation signals our ongoing commitment to advance our vision of making digital media entertainment available to our customers anywhere, anytime,” Patrick Liu (劉春), Alibaba’s president of digital entertainment, said in yesterday’s statement.
Alibaba is preparing for its US listing later this year, potentially the biggest ever tech offering, even as it maintains a steady stream of investments that has seen the firm and its affiliates invest more than US$7.5 billion since the beginning of the year.
Lionsgate Entertainment World will offer premium content and subscriber benefits such as invitations to screenings, the statement said.
The statement did not indicate what kind of content would be available.
China censors material authorities deem politically sensitive or obscene.
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