Tw Building Film Alliance With Nippon Tv, Toshiba

Time Warner Inc. is reportedly in discussions to partner with Nippon Television Network Corp. and Toshiba Corp. to form a Japan-based company to produce and distribute movies, dramas and other programming content.

Time Warner international television executives could not be reached for comment Thursday, but today's Nippon Keizai Shimbun reported that the partnership is expected to produce movies and dramas to market primarily in Japan and the rest of Asia. Sources close to the talks told The Hollywood Reporter that an agreement is "not imminent ... it's not likely to happen next week."

News of the pending partnership comes one week after Sony Corp. and Sony Pictures Entertainment unveiled Sony Pictures Television Japan, which will also look to produce programming primarily for a Japanese market resistant to much Western TV programming (HR 7/2).

The Time-Nippon-Toshiba venture will reportedly be capitalized at several hundred million yen with the three partners making equal investments. It will employ Toshiba's image-compression technology and the production know-how of NTV and Time Warner.

Programs will be distributed to broadcasters and sold on videocassette and DVD. The company will also distribute programming produced by NTV and Time Warner.

Through the partnership, Toshiba hopes to move into programming, viewing it as a high-growth area. It also hopes to increase sales of its broadcast equipment, DVD and other hardware. Time Warner is looking to make inroads in the Asian market.

With digital broadcast satellite services slated to come onstream in Japan in 2000, NTV hopes to gain a stronger position in satellite broadcasting.

Dow Jones News contributed to this report.