Under the agreement, SPTI‘s upcoming theatrical features will be made available to Hana TV subscribers on the same day the movie is released locally on home video and DVD.

This is the first time the day-and-date VOD model has been introduced in South Korea, a major television market. It is also the second such deal in the world, following SPTI‘s announced agreement with SingTel‘s for their mioTV service in Singapore this past August, stated an official statement.

"We are extremely pleased to partner with Hanaro Telecom to bring ‘day and date‘ VOD and EST services to South Korean consumers. SPTI continues to initiate new business models in order to create more value for our partners while giving consumers more choices in terms of accessing content when they want and how they want it," said SPTI SVP distribution Asia Ross Pollack.

The first on-demand title being released simultaneously on home video/DVD and HanaTV is Spider-Man 3. Upcoming movies include the CGI animation movie Surf‘s Up and the Bruce Willis and Halle Berry thriller Perfect Stranger.

In addition to the day-and-date on demand deal, SPTI has also licensed electronic sell-through (EST) rights for current and library features to Hanaro Telecom allowing HanaTV subscribers to download movies to own onto their set top boxes, PCs and various plug and play devices.

"The high broadband penetration and widespread practice of digital downloading in South Korea makes it an ideal market to roll out an electronic sell-through service for our movies and we are very optimistic about the growth of the EST business there," said SPTI executive director Soojin Chung.

"Our ‘day and date‘ VOD and EST deal involving blockbuster titles from a premier Hollywood studio such as Sony Pictures Television International are landmark deals for us and for the entire content industry here. Our partnership with SPTI is a testament to the success of our business model and our technological strength. We see this as the beginning of more groundbreaking deals with content providers from around the world," said Hanaromedia head of content division Stephen Kim.