Tencent Video animates China’s battle for premium content with Disney deal

Big-name content is a big battleground for China’s video-streaming sites. All the major ones – Youku, Tudou, PPS, PPTV, iQiyi, Tencent Video – are battling to be China’s Hulu or Netflix with a huge repository of licensed movies and TV dramas. The latest escalation in this war comes from Tencent Video, which has agreed with Disney (NYSE:DIS) to get more of its animated movies and series on the site.

All of this Disney content will be put on Tencent Video’s premium Hollywood section (at film.qq.com), which charges Chinese viewers RMB 20 ($3.25) per month (a reduced rate now from the previous $5) for streaming. The rest of the Tencent Video site is free and ad-supported.

Tencent Video’s Hollywood section will now get Disney, Pixar Studios, and Walt Disney Studios titles like Toy Story 3, Up, and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

The site currently has 1,500 movies, over 400 of which are in the premium Hollywood section. Some are available on-demand for under $1 about two weeks or one month after the US theatrical release.

Alex Liu, the general manager of Tencent’s online video department, explained to us late last year how the Hollywood section was launched in November 2012 as a way to test the user payment model.

Tencent (HKG:0700) has similar licensing deals with other studios, such as Universal and Warner Bros. Rival sites like Youku are doing the same.

(Editing by Paul Bischoff)