Fox Entertainment Group is exiting Movies.com, its joint venture with The Walt Disney Company intended to provide movies and other entertainment content on demand to US consumers through digital cable systems or broadband internet. The partners have now chosen to pursue other strategies to distribute their films to the broadband audience.

In a statement, Fox said that it had decided that the joint venture was "not appropriate at this time" after considering the potential regulatory process and logistical issues and examining technological and marketplace developments.

Disney will continue to own and operate the Movies.com website - already a popular movie listings information service - and said that it will plan to continue to license features to create on-demand services for digital delivery through cable, satellite, broadband internet and datacasting,

The two companies had worked on the site together for two years and Fox has indicated it is willing to license its films on a non-exclusive basis to Disney's distribution initiatives.