Technicolor announced a strategic alliance with Village Roadshow Ltd, a long-standing customer and a leading entertainment company operating in film and DVD distribution as well as cinema, production, theme parks and music.

This agreement further strengthens Technicolor's worldwide footprint by expanding its presence in Australia, where the group is already well-established as the country's largest DVD/Blu-ray disc replicator. It will also strengthen its Australian operations.

Since 2000, Technicolor is Village Roadshow's exclusive DVD and Blu-ray manufacturing supplier. The Group served both Australian and internationally produced titles such as Happy Feet, Sex & the City 1 & 2, Sherlock Holmes, The Hurt Locker, Ocean's 11, 12 & 13, I am Legend, and others.

Under the strategic alliance, Technicolor and Village Roadshow will jointly progress the transition to digital content creation and delivery, and will further extend Technicolor's existing service offerings in the Australian market including DVD/BD manufacturing and distribution (through its acquisition of the Roadshow distribution centre including the distribution responsibilities for Warner Bros. and Paramount Home Entertainment as well as Roadshow Entertainment); digital cinema distribution service support; and digital encoding, content preparation, transcoding and related digital media services including MediAffinity.

In Australia, in addition to Village Roadshow, Technicolor has been a long-standing DVD and Blu-ray service provider to Warner Bros Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, Universal Pictures International, and Paramount Pictures. It employs over 220 employees in its DVD and digital media services operations - with replication operation in Melbourne and packaging, digital media services (including digital cinema) and returns processing facility in Sydney.

Story filed 11.12.12