Celestial Pictures Inks Licensing Deal with Sony Max in Africa

HONG KONG: Following a deal with Celestial Pictures, Sony Max in Africa has secured exclusive cable and satellite broadcast rights for a range of titles from the Shaw Brothers Film Library.

Sony Max, Sony Pictures Television’s 24-hour action and reality channel, will air films such as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, The Chinese Boxer, Mad Monkey Kung Fu, Shaolin Temple, Vengeance and more.

The channel launched in February on the digital pay-TV platform Multichoice and currently has 3.3 million subscribers in 48 countries in Africa.

“We are thrilled that our Shaw Brothers films can now be seen in the continent of Africa as well,” said Gigi Ko, the director of distribution at Celestial Pictures. “It is a testimony to the evergreen entertainment value of these classics as well as the continued worldwide interest in martial arts movies and Chinese movies in general. Sony Max’s action focus, programming expertise and marketing power makes them the ideal partner to debut these films for African audiences.”