Hong Kong production andsales outfit Emperor Motion Pictures(EMP) has signed a three-year multi-territory output deal with News Corp's StarChinese Movies channel covering Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, the Philippines andSingapore.

Under the terms of the deal,Star will have exclusive Mandarin and Cantonese pay-TV rights to all upcomingfilms produced by EMP and JCE Movies - a joint venture between Jackie Chan's JCGroup and Emperor chairman Albert Yeung.

Titles included in the dealinclude JCE's House Of Fury, directed by Stephen Fung, and EMPproductions A Journey West, directed by Jeff Lau and starring NicholasTse and Charlene Choi; Lo Chi-leung's romantic adventure Bug Me Not, andgangster parody 6AM, directed by Adrian Kwan.

Star already has output dealswith Hong Kong studios including China Star, Media Asia, Teamwork and Universeand claims to have secured 90% of all current and upcoming Chinese titles.

"Today's announcementcreates a world record - no other Chinese movie channel has secured as manyexclusive new movies as Star Chinese Movies," said Star COO Steve Askew.

The pay-TV market forChinese-language films is looking increasingly lively with Celestial Moviesexpanding its distribution across the region and other broadcasters such asPhoenix TV and i-Cable also bidding for rights.