MUMBAI: Japanese broadcaster Wowow Inc's president Toshio Hirose yesterday announced a major multi-year feature film output license agreement with Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI).

With the rights to several SPTI's blockbuster releases like Spider-Man, Men In Black II, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Bad Boys II and S.W.A.T , this agreement will help Wowow get a competitive edge in the Japanese satellite broadcasting market, a company release states.

Another important factor of this deal is that the channel will also be able to broadcast films in high definition (HD) format.

Wowow is one of Japan's first private satellite and pay TV broadcasters and has a subscriber base of approximately 2.5 million.