Lionsgate Streaming Service With Alibaba to Launch in China by Year-End

Lionsgate plans by the end of 2014 to launch its Lionsgate Entertainment World streaming service in China with Alibaba, CEO Jon Feltheimer said Friday on an earnings call. Lionsgate also is in talks with "several other prospective partners for additional online branded platforms," Feltheimer said. "These initiatives all capitalize on our ability to innovate in the digital space as well as to reach niche audiences with branded quality content and targeted marketing." Lionsgate has "a lot of content available in China," including "premium series" like Mad Men and movies like Divergent, Feltheimer said in Q&A. "But I want to be clear that it's not only going to be our content" that will reside on the streaming service being launched with Alibaba, he said. "We're going to be curating other content for that platform." Lionsgate also has started shooting movie content with 360-degree cameras to "take advantage" of Oculus Rift and other virtual-reality 3D headset technologies, he said. "We're actually pretty excited about it." Lionsgate views it as "the kind of enhancement that will make our home entertainment product significantly more valuable," he said.