MTG & Fox in Pan-Scandinavian Pact

STOCKHOLM: Modern Times Group has signed a deal with Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution to bring a range of hit movies and TV shows to Viasat’s Scandinavian free-TV channels as well as the Viaplay multi-screen online video streaming service.

The deal includes first-run rights to new releases such as Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Black Swan, Never Let Me Go, The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, Gulliver’s Travels and X-Men: First Class. The agreement also provides access to classic library titles including Titanic, Independence Day and Braveheart.

Viasat also picked up the first-run rights to a range of U.S. series, including Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Ally McBeal, 24 and Prison Break. Viasat also gains the rights to library TV titles and U.S. network TV movies and mini-series.

The content will be available across Viasat’s nine free-TV entertainment channels in Scandinavia. The same programming will also be available to web-connected devices from Viaplay, which includes free-TV catch-up services and pay-TV VOD services.

The four-year deal kicks off in 2012.

Hans-Holger Albrecht, the president and CEO of MTG, commented: “Fox has a fantastic track record of creating massively popular movies and TV series. This agreement not only further strengthens our linear programming schedule, but also enhances our ever-increasing offering of online streamed content. This is a groundbreaking deal for both Fox and MTG and we are proud to be the first to have structured such a deal in Scandinavia. Viasat is the home of entertainment and our objective is to provide viewers with the highest quality TV content on multiple distribution platforms”.

Marion Edwards, the president of international television at Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution, added: “Fox and Viasat are perfect partners in this important marketplace. Combining the popularity, reach and diverse services of Viasat with the power of the films and series of Fox will create a winning proposition for viewers.”