Alibaba Pictures plans to join TV movie alliance

Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd, a subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, planned to join a TV movie alliance of about 30 Chinese provincial and city cable networks, Shanghai-based newspaper National Business Daily reported Thursday.

Zhang Qiang, Alibaba Pictures' CEO, was quoted as saying that the company is willing to cooperate with local cable networks via the TV movie alliance.

Alibaba Pictures plans to make a large investment in buying movie rights and putting these movies on cable networks as a pay-per-view service, according to the report.

The new TV movie service is expected to attract 800 million users of Alipay, Alibaba's third-party payment tool, Zhang said.

The alliance was set up on Tuesday by cable networks from cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, aiming to enable TV audiences to watch new films at home.