Moviesystem, a new company which spans conventional video distribution and video-on-demand (VoD), has picked up VoD rights to Pathe and the Luc Besson-headed Europa Corp.

The five year deals give Moviesystem worldwide rights to the 600-title back catalogue and the current output of Europa. A wholesaler which has developed a film rights management system based on Microsoft software, Moviesystem will re-sell the rights to retail VoD operators.

"Our objective is to build up as much content as possible in order to have a strong negotiating position when faced with the VoD operators and to offer an alternative to the US majors," said Maxime Japy , president of Moviesystem.

The company was established in March last year and released its first film Fabrice Genestal's La Squale in June. It has since released Ilan Duran Cohen's La Confusion Des Genres simultaneously on VoD, DVD and VHS.

Europa was founded last year and has already been responsible for hits Yamakasi and Kiss Of The Dragon. Recently it picked up distribution rights to a slate of films including One Night At McCools' from UGC-Ph.