Babelgum, the free-to-view independent web TV service, has sealed a deal with digital distributor Content Republic to present 24 world cinema films on Babelgum as online exclusives.

The titles include Lars Von Trier's The Boss Of It All, Milcho Manchevski's Before The Rain and Steve Barron's Choking Man.

Two films will be made available per month over the course of a year kicking off in May 2009, and after each exclusive month, the films will remain on the platform non-exclusively.

The deal was negotiated by Andreas Lemos, content acquisition manager for film at Babelgum and Teun Hilte for Content Republic.

'We are proud to be working with Babelgum at this exciting time where new routes to market are finally opening up and we can add value for the distributors, sales agents and producers we represent by tapping into previously untapped revenue streams,' said Hilte here.

Babelgum's advertising-supported model allows content-owners a new means to monetise their assets. Its film division is run by the veteran Karol Martesko-Fenster. Content Republic is a digital distribution outfit based in London and New York which works with sales agents, independent distributors and producers to release their films online securely and reliably.