'Sex and the City' and 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' will go out on-demand online in Italy.
In a watershed Italian IPTV pact, RAI Cinema and broadband operator Fastweb have inked an on-demand deal that includes firstrun rights to Hollywood blockbusters “Sex and the City” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”
Rai Cinema, which is pubcaster RAI’s film arm and the country’s third-largest distributor, will provide Fastweb, the country’s second-largest Internet provider, with a vast library, including firstrun titles before their free-to-air TV transmission.
The deal, which is the largest of its type in Italy, includes “Babel,” “The Golden Compass” and “The Black Dahlia,” which have not yet played on RAI or any other Italo web, alongside Italo classics including Ermanno Olmi’s 1978 Palme d’Or winner “The Tree of Wooden Clogs.”
Fastweb currently has “Gomorrah” and “Saw IV,” both released by Rai Cinema in Italy, available on-demand concurrently with their local DVD releases.
Financial details were not disclosed.
Fastweb also will promote Rai Cinema titles on its site.
Fastweb TV topper Giorgio Tacchia said that his platform “is increasingly becoming an extraordinary tool to promote and support the theatrical distribution of cinema and act as a bastion against piracy.”
Fastweb, which touts itself as an IPTV pioneer, also offers subscribers access to Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Italia paybox in streaming video and to generalist web La 7’s premium content.
Earlier this week, Fastweb and Italo Internet service providers Telecom Italia and Wind formed an Italian IPTV operators association to foster the use of IPTV in Italy, promote the growth of broadband and make an active contribution to the country’s planned 2012 digital switchover.
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