Mumbai: Television on demand company TVN Entertainment and North American distributor of award-winning independent films Film Movement, announced a multi-year deal under which TVN is distributing Film Festival On Demand, Film Movement’s VOD platform which is sponsored by Stella Artois.

Film Festival On Demand offers the first industry-wide sponsor-supported independent film service on a free to consumer basis, and is now available in over six million homes, just six months after its launch.

As part of the deal, TVN will provide asset management services, marketing support, encoding and access to iPRI — the first asset management tool allowing programmers to make real-time metadata changes, post pitch. The deal also allows for distribution in all formats including MPEG 2, MPEG 4 (H.264), standard definition and high definition (HD).

"Film Festival On Demand is a great example of the extensive and high-quality niche programming available on VOD through TVN," said TVN Entertainment senior vice president of strategy and business development Matt Cohen. "Movies are a huge driver of on demand and the offer of free films from top festivals is a great value proposition for our affiliates and their digital customers."

Film Festival On Demand will feature eight award-winning long and short films each month from the industry’s premiere festivals including: Cannes, Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca, Venice and Toronto.

"In 2007, we at Film Movement recognized the need and importance of having award-winning independent and foreign films available for free on VOD," said Film Movement president Adley Gartenstein. "We are proud that in such a short period of time, millions of people have been able to gain, and now have, access to our great programming. Partnering with TVN has been an important component to our success, and it guarantees that our product will continue to have a wide and efficient distribution."