YOU On Demand Holdings (YOD), a VOD service provider in China delivering Hollywood movies and premium content to TV and mobile screens, has entered into an exclusive distribution and service partnership agreement with China Network Television's (CNTV) IPTV operating entity Ai Shang Media (China IPTV).
China IPTV, created as a joint venture by CNTV and Shanghai Media Group, is the only integrated for-profit IPTV platform operating nationwide under CNTV's authorization.
Under the terms of the agreement, China IPTV and YOD will work exclusively to provide Hollywood movie content to all IPTV users in China.
YOD will have the first right of refusal on all movie content distribution, so that any content that China IPTV looks to distribute will always be sourced first from YOU On Demand.
Under existing government regulations, CNTV is the sole national broadcast controller of all of the country's IPTV platforms across all 31 provinces.
In each region, the local telecom operators provide 2-tiered service of bundled broadband and IPTV services, which carry both live TV and on demand content from CNTV and local provincial TV stations.
For example, over the last several years, China Telecom, one of the Big 3 telecom operators in China, has expanded to 40 million IPTV subscriber homes in southern China.