Youku pacts with Fox

SHANGHAI -- China's biggest online video streaming site, Youku.com, has pacted with 20th Century Fox to license 250 pics. The deal gives Youku the right to offer Fox's new release and library titles on its Premium plaform. Film franchises have performed well on Youku Premium, with new theatrical releases driving online interest in previous installments in the franchises, and the new deal includes online rights to Fox franchises such as "Planet of the Apes," "Ice Age," "X-Men" and "Alien." The films will begin appearing on Youku Premium this month, ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday in late January. The number of pay-per-view transactions on Youku Premium more than tripled between Q2 and Q3 of 2011, the company said in a statement. As of November, a growing percentage -- 13.5% -- of Youku Premium users paid more than once per month to view premium content. "We have been working closely with Hollywood studios in providing quality content to millions of Chinese Internet users while effectively protecting intellectual properties," said Zhu Huilong, veep of movie operations and corporate development. "We are encouraged by the growth of the Youku Premium platform, and our new licensing agreement with Fox will make Youku Premium more compelling for our users," said Zhu. Youku Premium has processed more than one million orders since launching in beta a year ago. In August, Youku struck a deal with DreamWorks Animation for online distribution of the "Kung Fu Panda" film franchise. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com