Entertainment One Signals Dawn of a New Era

Entertainment One, the distribution company behind the Twilight movies, today pinned its hopes on live digital streaming of movies to combat falling DVD sales.

E1 announced a five-year deal with film rental website LoveFilm which will allow subscribers to watch new and old films streamed to their laptop or television sets.

E1 shares rose 14.8p or 8% to 191.8p after the group said the deal will mean its trading performance in the year to March 2012 will now be “significantly ahead of market expectations”.

Darren Throop, chief executive of E1, said: “We expect it to increase our digital revenues significantly and we are delighted to be partnering with Europe’s largest digital subscription service.

“It also highlights the attractiveness of the E1 library and we remain extremely excited about the potential for similar opportunities in our other key markets.”

Amazon bought LoveFilm for a reported £200 million earlier this year.

Excerpt from an article on FilmContact.com. Click here for the full article.