TV Channel Nelonen and Disney-ABC International have made an agreement that allows Nelonen to show Disney's hit series on its Finnish video-on-demand (VoD) service just a week after the US premier. This is the first time Disney has ever entered into an agreement on VoD with its partners and Finland will be the first country to broadcast the shows so quickly after USA, in some cases even a year before their TV debut.
The service, called "Hot from the US" was developed together with Disney and it offers a legal, copyright protected way of watching TV from PC within weeks of the original airing. The service will open in October, with Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty being the first shows available. New episodes from Lost will be seen in spring.
"It is important to us to be the first in the world to launch this kind of new service to our viewers and to be able to do it together with Disney-ABC, one of the best know media companies in the world. As an additional service to the Finnish viewers, we will naturally offer the programmes with subtitles", comments Pirjo Airaksinen, Channel Manager of Nelonen.
Usually the new episodes are available on Thursday or Sunday following the US premiere. The shows can be viewed when ever the viewer wishes, six weeks after the original broadcasting. The viewer purchases rights to one episode at a time and has 24 hours to view the show. Each episode will cost three euros.
TV channel Nelonen is part of SWelcom, the electronic media division of the SanomaWSOY Group.