Hollywood contents to be available on Alibaba

24 Oct – Having accepted the Game Changer of the Year award during the Asia Society's Game Changer Awards in New York recently, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd proves it is leading the game as it recently reveals its plan to expand its entertainment content offering.

Alibaba's chairman, Jack Ma, will be heading to Hollywood in the coming week, Bloomberg reports. Also with him will be head of Alibaba Pictures Group, Zhang Qiang, and Vice President of digital entertainment, Liu Chunning.

The team will be meeting with Michael Lynton from Sony and Brad Grey from Paramount, among others, to discuss the possibility of obtaining rights to distribute US movies and TV shows in China.

Alibaba currently allows Chinese consumers to buy entertainment content via its set-up boxes, which also provides customers the ease of online purchasing from its website.

If the deals come through, Hollywood will have a big advantage as well as China is now the second-largest theatrical market in the world. There will be more chances of forging partnerships for movies.

This will not be the first time that Alibaba and Hollywood worked out a deal, however. Back in July, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, the studio responsible for the mega successful "Hunger Games" franchise, teams up with Alibaba to launch a subscription streaming service in China, offering titles such as "Mad Men" and "The Hunger Games".

[Main photo source: uk.reuters.com]