T-Online has succeeded in gaining another renowned partner from the US film industry – Warner Bros. International Television Distribution – for its Video on Demand service in Germany. In the future, the WBITV's top cinema films will be an attractive enhancement of the service range at www.vod.t-online.de. In addition to the "Harry Potter" titles, films from WBITV include numerous box office hits such as "You've Got Mail" starring Tom Hanks, "Eyes Wide Shut" with Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, as well as "The Matrix" with Keanu Reaves. The films will be available online concurrent with the pay-per –view window.

Founded in 1923, Warner Bros. Studios is one of the world's largest and most successful companies in the entertainment industry. The Studio's library contains more than 6,600 films, some 40,000 TV titles, as well as 14,000 animated cartoons.

"Our Video on Demand service is made still more attractive by the partnership with Warner Bros.," says Burkhard Grassmann, board member for Marketing at T-Online International AG. "The contract assures T-Online not only a wealth of first-class library titles, but also new films which, experience has shown, are most frequently in demand by customers and thus of great significance for further development of the online distribution channel."

More than 450 feature films of all genres are currently available at www.vod.t-online.de, as well as independent productions of the ProSiebenSat1 station family. In addition to current Warner Bros. Studios films, T-Online plans to add at least 100 films from the Studio's vast library each year to the service.

"We're excited to be in business with T-Online, a leader in the VOD arena in Germany, and especially pleased with the level of copyright protection this deal includes," said Jeffrey Schlesinger, President, Warner Bros. International Television. "This agreement incorporates a number of anti-piracy measures and procedures that reflect Warner Bros. and T-Online's cooperation in and commitment to actively deal with online piracy while offering consumers an attractive and affordable legitimate alternative to illegal p2p file sharing".

"T-Online is the leader in VOD in Germany, and a great partner to be in business with," said Sylvia Rothblum, Managing Director, German-Speaking Territories, Warner Bros. International Television Distribution, who negotiated the deal on behalf of Warner Bros. "Fans will now have access to one of Hollywood's most prestigious and popular collections of current and library films".

Available at launch of the cooperation are the German-language versions of such films as "A Perfect Murder" with Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow, "The Perfect Storm" with George Clooney, as well as "Outbreak" directed by German star regisseur Wolfgang Petersen.

Via the "Aktuelle Filme" (Current Films) rubric – a new feature in the Video on Demand range – such top films as "Ocean's Twelve", "A Very Long Engagement", as well as "Constantine" and "Criminal" can be accessed. Altogether, thanks to the cooperation with Warner Bros. International Television Distribution, the genres available at www.vod.t-online.de can be significantly expanded with the addition of many new films. This also applies, for example, for classics like the "Mad Max" Trilogy or "Batman".

"We have worked very systematically to reach an agreement with Warner Bros. International Television," says Peter Kerckhoff, Head of Product Marketing & Content Sourcing at T-Online. "We have succeeded in achieving this and are proud to now have six of the eight Hollywood major studios under contract, thus enabling us to offer our customers a unique film selection. Naturally, however, we continue to negotiate with partners of interest to us in order to further expand the service range."

Since launch of the Video on Demand service in November 2003, T-Online has signed numerous contracts with international and national providers and media companies which hold the rights to cinema blockbusters, high quality feature films, series and interesting documentaries. T-Online customers who use a broadband T-DSL connection and a T-Online tariff can view cinema films as videostreams at www.vod.t-online.de. With media receivers such as the Activy Media Center from Fujitsu Siemens Computers, the Samsung SMT-7020S, or the Zenega 101 CI selected by Bose, the Video on Demand service can be used via the TV set, as can various additional services.