Arvato Middle East Sales (AMES) has announced that it has signed up agreements with several global content majors in preparation for the launch of their digital entertainment service in the region. 

AMES has concluded agreements with leading content companies - Sony BMG, Hungama, I-Play and Eros International - across the areas of Mobile Entertainment offerings, PC Download and Streaming Music, Short and Long film versions, TV series and Mobile-PC games, said an Arvato official.  

AMES was reconstituted in October 2007 when the Abu Dhabi Group acquired a significant stake of the company from arvato AG, the international media and communication service provider of Bertelsmann AG, with a view to bring a series of world class digital entertainment offerings to global emerging markets.

Bertelsmann is the largest media company in Europe with revenues of euros18.7 billion ($29 billion) in 2007.

As part of the agreement with Abu Dhabi Group, Arvato mobile will deploy a regional version of its international digital media distribution platform in the UAE, making the UAE the nerve centre of digital media distribution for emerging markets. 

Sean Emery, CEO of AMES said the company was committed to bringing the best of both local and international content to all consumers here in the region.

"The agreements mark the first step in our initiative to offer legal digital content services in the market with content partners. We are in discussions with several other important international and local content owners and will add them to the list of partners in the very near future," Emery noted.

With these agreements the company will be able to bring to consumers worldclass local and regional content for a fraction of the costs they are presently paying internationally for legal content, he pointed out. 

"These agreements are revolutionary as they allow us to experiment with various business models from advertising-supported free music and ringtones to consumers in the region, to sponsored all 'you can eat' music, movie and game subscriptions in addition to pay as you go options."
 
According to Emery, the company has plans to launch its consumer brand Getmo at the Mecom conference in Abu Dhabi which takes place from May 26-28.

"We aim to launch a complete digital shopping mall for music, movies, ringtones, interactive online, mobile gaming and other unique digital entertainment to meet consumer demands," he observed. 

AMES believes that the future distribution and sales of digital content, especially music and games, will be supported by advertising. Ad supported content is delivered to the user at a reduced fee or nearly free, subsidised through the placement of advertising and branding to drive adoption.

Global studies have indicated that advertisers are increasingly allocating larger amounts of their budgets towards mobile and web applications to delivering targeted and identifiable communities supported by content.-TradeArabia News Service