Comcast, HBO Partner to Promote New WWII Miniseries, "The Pacific," via VOD

MSO Comcast and premium programmer HBO last week announced a partnership that will see the companies promoting HBO's new World War II-themed miniseries, "The Pacific," to Comcast digital subscribers via a range of supplemental VOD content. (Note: the 10-hour miniseries, which will premiere March 14th and which was executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, the team behind the 2001 HBO miniseries, "Band of Brothers," follows the intertwined war experiences of three real-life US Marine veterans of the Pacific Theater, Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge and John Basilone.)

According to the companies, their promotional partnership will see them providing Comcast subscribers with an exclusive first look at a range of original programming about "The Pacific," and will also see HBO On Demand making available a new episode of "Band of Brothers" in HD each week, as well as offering "never-before-seen-on-TV" companion content in the "Top Picks" folder of Comcast's VOD service. "With exclusive HBO 'The Pacific' content, our customers have premier backstage access to this great entertainment franchise," Derek Harrar, Comcast's SVP and general manager of video and entertainment services, said in a prepared statement. "Programming partnerships enable us to turn shows into events for our customers. High usage tells us they love it, so this year we'll have more than ever before."

Programs that are being made available to Comcast digital subscribers as part of the promotional partnership with HBO (in addition to the weekly episodes of "Band of Brothers") include:

• "From 'Band of Brothers' to 'The Pacific,'" which will be available exclusively on Comcast and which features Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg discussing their experiences making "Band of Brothers" and how this led to the creation of "The Pacific."
• A scene from "The Pacific": an exclusive-to-Comcast early look at a scene from the new miniseries, complete with an introduction by the show's creators.
• "The Making of 'The Pacific,'" which the companies describe as a "unique cut made for Comcast [that] details the creation of the new miniseries."
• A trailer for "The Pacific," which the companies again describe as a "unique cut."
• "Profiles of 'The Pacific,'" described by the companies as a "sneak peak at character profiles of the real soldiers from the war."
• "The Making of Band of Brothers," described by the companies as "detail[ing] the genesis of the project, its casting and the day-to-day grind the actors endured."
• "'Band of Brothers': Video Diaries," in which "Band of Brothers" co-star, Ron Livingston, follows the actors and filmmakers during the filming of the miniseries.
• "We Stand Alone: The Men of Easy Company," a documentary featuring interviews with the actual soldiers whose war experiences were recounted by the miniseries.

In other VOD news: Sony Pictures Television has signed a distribution deal with Swedish OTT VOD service provider, Voddler. The deal is SPT's first VOD deal in Scandinavia and will see it offering a range of recent and library titles to Voddler subscribers. "We are delighted to partner with Voddler to make our movies available on their online movie service in Sweden," SPT EVP, Stuart Baxter, said in a prepared statement. "Extending the reach of our movies and TV content across multiple platforms is the cornerstone of our distribution strategy, especially in key territories such as the Scandinavian countries where uptake of digital content is particularly high, outpacing consumption patterns across the rest of Europe."