Warner Bros. plans to become the first Hollywood studio to make its new release movies available digitally in China - pioneering VOD in what is already one of the world's largest broadband markets. The joint announcement was made by Marc Gareton, Executive Vice President, International, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution and Shao Yiding, CEO of Union Voole Technology in China.

In the first transactional VOD deal of its kind in China, Warner Bros.' new release movies, including some that have never been released theatrically in China, will be available to Chinese consumers to rent on VOD to their PCs via Voole.com at a price of between 4 and 7 Rmb per title. Upcoming titles will include I Am Legend, Fool's Gold and Speed Racer, with further new titles announced as they become available. A wide range of classic and library titles across films, TV series and special interest will also be available.

There are an estimated 300 web sites offering video-watching or video-sharing services in China. However, only a tiny fraction of these sites offer feature length films, and even fewer actually own distribution rights to Hollywood movies. Now, for the first time, anyone who has Internet access in China will be able to rent Warner Bros. feature length blockbuster movies, viewable on their PC.

Providing reliable, high quality, legitimate, DRM-protected digital movies to consumers on a timely basis is also an important part of Warner Bros. efforts to compete with piracy. For example Warner titles will offer the consumer a choice of original English soundtrack with subtitles or high quality Chinese language dub. Research has shown that this is a significant benefit versus pirated copies.