BT Media & Broadcast announced an alliance with Entriq, a leading provider of pay media solutions that help service providers manage, protect and sell multimedia content to broadband, mobile and IPTV devices.

The two organisations will work together to provide an end-to-end digital content delivery system including a digital store, that allows customers to sell high value content via the web and mobile platforms to consumers.

The service provided by BT Media & Broadcast and Entriq has already successfully won its first customer. Following a competitive tender, the service has been selected by BT Vision to enable consumers to download video entertainment to their PCs and portable media players from the BT Vision website.

The BT Vision download-to-own service, launched in July 2006, is available at www.downloadstore.bt.com initially with up to 150 titles available from NBC Universal including the latest Hollywood blockbusters and classics from the archive. The service will build to a huge selection of titles from all genres, wherever possible offering customers the opportunity to download and own content and view it on a PC, portable media players and the TV.

Barry Bonnett, CEO BT Media & Broadcast, said: "Alliances with organisations like Entriq will form a key part of our strategy moving forward. They allow us to focus on maximising the consumer experience on behalf of our customers, safe in the knowledge that the valuable content is securely managed and delivered. We believe that this alliance will be very profitable for both parties and has already won us a significant customer in BT Vision. In what was a highly competitive tender, BT Vision recognised the quality of service and cost effectiveness of our overall network based capability."

Entriq's specialist expertise which encompasses encrypted content and subscriber management systems will be integrated by BT Media & Broadcast into customer solutions.

Dan Marks, chief executive of BT Vision, said: "Providing a comprehensive download-to-own digital entertainment service is challenging but the BT M&BS/Entriq end-to-end solution allowed us to focus our energies on running the service rather than solving complex technology issues."

Scott Crowder, chief operating officer, Entriq, said: "Broadband distribution has matured to such a level in Europe that media owners across Europe are seeing new revenue opportunities through online and mobile distribution channels for their premium content. We are looking forward to working with BT Media & Broadcast and believe that together we have a compelling proposition that will meet and exceed customer expectations and deliver a secure and compelling user experience."

BT Media & Broadcast and Entriq are already working on other joint sales opportunities.