In a move to combat the raging piracy business in China, Warner Bros. announced on Wednesday it will launch a new movie download service in Hong Kong, providing customers with fast arrivals of high quality movie downloads for a price - not yet disclosed.
Through its Web site named 08Media, ViDeOnline will offer around 100 movie titles at launch available for download, including newer films like "Superman Returns" and "Happy Feet", as well as numerous older titles from its library like "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
"This deal fits perfectly with our philosophy of providing consumers around the world with access to our world-class entertainment," said Jeffrey Schlesinger, president of Warner Bros. International Television, a division of Warner Bros.
Hollywood studios claim that piracy costs them more than $6 billion a year in lost revenues. And to that extent, the Asia region - where you can buy pirated DVD movies for less than the cost of a movie ticket - is an important target in the anti-piracy battle. ViDeOnline Chairman and Chief Executive Dr. Priscilla Lu said the company will use digital video watermarking and other technology to guard against copying.