Mumbai: Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) has inked a "day-and-date" video-on-demand licensing deal with KT Corporation (KT), South Korea’s integrated telecommunications service provider, to offer current and upcoming theatrical movies from Sony Pictures Entertainment on KT’s Mega TV IPTV.

The "day-and date" aspect of the deal will make the movie titles available to Mega TV’s customers on demand on the same day as the local home video/DVD release.

The move comes amidst the rapid growth of IPTV in South Korea, following last year’s passing of the IPTV bill by the country’s National Assembly, and the continued popularity of Hollywood movies there. The agreement will allow Mega TV customers to catch the latest titles from Sony Pictures such as the recently released movies Vantage Point, The Water Horse and Across the Universe as they become available on home video/DVD.

The deal also includes features such as Stephen Chow’s box-office blockbuster CJ7; Will Smith’s upcoming superhero action movie Hancock; and Academy Award-winner Kevin Spacey’s drama 21, which will be offered to consumers post their theatrical run. In addition to movies, the deal also covers SPTI’s new hit TV series such as Damages starring Golden Globe-winner Glenn Close and Cashmere Mafia starring Lucy Liu post their television broadcast.

"SPTI is honored to partner with KT Corporation to bring our latest blockbusters to Mega TV’s subscribers, and is focused on providing innovative solutions and offerings to our broadcast and Telco partners to help them meet, and exceed, their customers’ needs" said senior vice president, distribution, Asia Ross Pollack.

Sony Pictures Television International executive director, licensing, South Korea Soojin Chung added, "We are thrilled to expand our relationship with KT and enable them to continue to build upon Mega TV’s success with our hit TV shows in addition to our feature films."

KT head of media business Chung Man-ho said, "KT’s Mega TV is very much focused on acquiring good quality content and provide them to our subscribers in the fastest possible way. KT will continue to bring more content including feature films in order to satisfy our customer’s needs."

KT launched its Mega TV IPTV service nationally in July 2007, making it available to its 6.52 million high-speed Internet users. By 16 April, Mega TV had 590,000 subscribers and it expects to increase the number to 1.5 million in 2008.

A new report from Informa Telecoms & Media released in February 2008 forecasts that the global on-demand movie and TV programming (excluding adult and sport) market will be worth USD10 billion by 2012. Asia Pacific will have 481 million on-demand homes by then and generate US$1,170 million, accounting for 12% of global on-demand revenues.