The Vuze Inks Exclusive Distribution Rights for Popular Anime Series Never Before Available Outside Japan

PALO ALTO, CA -- Vuze, a rapidly growing open entertainment platform for professionally produced content with an established audience of more than 14 million users, announced the immediate and exclusive availability of the hit anime series NEKO Rahmen for worldwide download on Vuze. The company will subtitle the series in English and make the entire 13-episode series available free through advertising support.

NEKO Rahmen marks the first time that an online video platform has secured exclusive rights for anime content directly from the Japanese producers, with the option to create original subtitles in multiple languages. The hit series is based on Sonishi Kenji's popular comedic cartoon and was the most watched short animation series on Yahoo! Japan official streaming site in August 2007. Vuze will offer subtitles in French, German and Spanish for NEKO Rahmen by early 2008.

Largest Anime Library on Vuze
Vuze has secured content publishing agreements with some of the premier anime studios in the world including GONG, AnimEigo, Media Blasters and World Events Productions. With the addition of content from these studios, Vuze is now the largest online destination for free, high-res Anime video.

“With deep libraries of high-quality content, Vuze is building the future of online entertainment,” said Gilles BianRosa, CEO of Vuze. “Anime is just the first of many content categories where we will offer the richest and most exciting entertainment experience to be found anywhere.”

Vuze now offers more than 360 premium anime titles. New anime programming includes: VOLTRON: Defender of Universe, Gun Frontier, Bubblegum Crisis, Girls High, Ramen Fighter Miki, Submarine Super, Cosmowarrior Zero, Maetel Legend, Beast Fighters and Vampire Princess Miyu.

"Vuze is the best platform available to offer NEKO Rahmen exclusively, for the first time, outside of Japan," said Think Corporation CEO Yuji Mori. "We chose to partner with Vuze because of their amazing audience reach, and immersive, high quality video experience. Vuze presents a great opportunity to bring NEKO Rahmen to a new, massive base of anime fanatics, hungry for high-quality entertainment."

“It’s clear that anime is incredibly popular with young people who consume high-resolution video,” said André de Semlyen, Co-founder and COO of GONG. “The challenge is to offer anime in a way that gives the fans what they want - free, legal and high-resolution - so they don’t need to seek out pirated material. This is exactly what GONG is doing with Vuze.”

In addition to its world class Anime library, Vuze also has comprehensive offerings of Sci-Fi, Animation, and Horror programming from major studios and independent producers.

About Vuze
Vuze is the world's most popular entertainment platform for DVD-quality and HD video content. With an installed base of 14 million unique client downloads in its first 10 months, 500,000 new viewers joining per week and more than 100 content partners to date, Vuze is experiencing unprecedented organic growth. Vuze attracts and features high quality content from a growing roster of global television networks, premier production studios and thousands of maverick content creators, on the most advanced, most open entertainment platform ever created. Vuze, Inc, formerly known as Azureus, Inc., is headquartered in Palo Alto, with offices in Los Angeles, Paris, and New York.

About Think Corporation
The mission of THINK is to accelerate the evolution and worldwide expansion of the Japanese content industry, notably Japanese animation, and to provide higher cultural experiences for all people through our business practices as a content capital company.

About GONG
GONG, the first cutting edge Japanese animation network, is the only on-demand Anime channel, available 24/7, anywhere, anytime, on any screen (TV, Mobile, Internet, VOD), in 42 countries across Europe and North America, bringing to Manga and Anime fans - teens and adults, the top-rated and most popular Anime series and movies

About AnimEigo
Established in 1989, AnimEigo is the oldest surviving Anime releaser in North America. Renowned for the quality of their translations and subtitles, AnimEigo releases classic Anime titles like Bubblegum Crisis, Riding Bean, Otaku no Video, and Vampire Princess Miyu via DVD and online video platforms.

About Media Blasters
Media Blasters Inc. is a New York Based corporation that translates, packages, and dubs anime and live action programming for the US DVD market. They are perhaps best known for their DVD releases of Invader Zim, and VOLTRON as well as for translating the anime Berserk, Knight Hunters, and Rurouni Kenshin.

About World Events Productions
For 25 years World Events Productions, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, has been on the cutting-edge of top quality entertainment production and international distribution and 2004 marked the 20th anniversary celebration of VOLTRON, a leading World Events Production property that topped the charts in the 80’s and generated a loyal fan following that still exists today. Today, World Events Productions properties are licensed throughout the world with presence in more than 60 countries.



Source : http://www.bvcapital.com/news/show/vuze-inks-exclusive-distribution-rights-for-popular-anime-series-never-before-available-outside-japan