NBCU SVOD deal with China’s Alibaba

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has bought a package of content from NBCUniversal for its Tmall Box Office streaming service.

The agreement gives Tmall Universal Pictures’ new releases as well as films from its library. Titles including Minions and older films including Fast & Furious 7 and Jurassic World will be on the TMall service.

Kevin MacLellan (pictured), chairman, NBCUniversal International, said: “This partnership will continue to increase our reach in the market, as well as driving additional revenues for us in Asia.

“NBCUniversal is committed to licensing high quality programming to Chinese platforms in order to provide great entertainment experiences to the Chinese audience.”

NBCUniversal said the China deal is part of its ongoing plans to expand its businesses outside of the US, particularly in key consumer growth markets such as China, where SVOD is forecast to grow rapidly in the next few years.

CEO Steve Burke outlined an initiative to grow international revenues at a media conference yesterday.

Tmall was launched this year as Alibaba’s SVOD effort.