AOL Cuts Miramax Movie Deal

Signaling its move into long-form, Internet-distributed video, AOL has inked a deal with Miramax that will enable it to offer full-length films from the studio in the U.S. across a range of connected devices.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal gives AOL access to Miramax's 700-plus film library, which includes titles such as Pulp Fiction, Chicago, Good Will Hunting, The English Patient, and the Scream, Scary Movie and Spy Kids franchises. AOL didn't announce its initial lineup of films, but it will offer a Miramax-branded channel, with the studio's premium content refreshed on a monthly basis.

With the deal in-hand, AOL, which acquired cross-screen advertising firm Adap.tv last year and has historically focused on shorter-length videos, said it will launch a new Movies experience that will be featured across The AOL On Network and offer free, ad-supported films that can be streamed on mobile devices, Web browsers and other connected devices.

comScore reported last week that AOL's online properties generated 69.38 million unique viewers and 1.31 billion videos in March, behind Facebook's (88.4 million unique viewers and 4.5 billion videos) and Google (155.6 million viewers and 11.06 billion videos). In March, AOL also served up 3.80 million video ads, only behind LiveRail's 3.89 billion, according to comScore's latest online video rankings.

We continue to evolve our content strategy to include all screens and all experiences, said Ran Harnevo (pictured), president of AOL Video, in a statement. With our Miramax partnership, we have our first foray into film and long-form, bringing a cinematic experience to our premium content library and across our connected TV experiences. Having a premium launch partner in Miramax means that we bring some of the best, award-winning content to the web in a format that is easly accessible to consumers.

For the full story go to Multichannel.com.

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