Shemaroo Entertainment and Momedia sign deal for new UK Bollywood service

Shemaroo Entertainment, India, and MoMedia International, a digital distributor and manager of video on demand (VoD) services backed by Endemol, have concluded an exclusive five-year deal with BT Vision to create and manage Bolly & Beyond, its brand new South Asian VoD service for the UK.

Shemaroo and MoMedia will manage and market Bolly & Beyond, a subscription service due to launch later in September 2009 on British Telecom's IPTV platform, BT Vision. The service will target South Asian communities in the UK with a mix of Bollywood movies, music and television shows and will be available to subscribers for £6.85 per month.

Commenting on the deal, Jai Maroo, director, Shemaroo Entertainment, said: ''With our large and diverse library of content and our strong relations with all the major content producers in India, we are excited to be providing a unique entertainment package to the South Asian communities residing in the UK. As a major content company we strive to innovate in the digital space.''

Lucas Bertrand, co-founder and CEO, MoMedia International, added: ''We are proud to be offering our managed VoD solution to BT. We are seeing an increasing number of platforms outsourcing all or part of their digital TV services to specialist partners such as ourselves.''

Marc Watson, CEO, BT Vision, said: ''We are delighted to be bringing a wide range of quality South Asian programmes to BT Vision. Bollywood fans can now choose from an extensive library of TV and film and watch what they want, when they want it. This is a great addition to what is already the UK's biggest on demand service for TV, film, kids, music and replay programmes.''