A licensee deal, the first of its kind in Malta, has been signed between Universal Studios and Visco Enterprises Co Ltd.

The deal was concluded and signed in November 2005 by Visco’s managing director Joe Borg after months of negotiations.

Visco Enterprises are also the authorised distributors of Warner Home Video, 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures (Columbia and MGM) and Entertainment in Video.

Universal Studios are one of the six major film companies with an impressive list of titles. Visco Enterprises Co Ltd was set up in 2001 but its director Joe Borg has been in this business for over 25 years and had set up the company VSC Ltd that still operates the Exotique outlets.

Joe Borg had concluded deals for Malta with all the major film studios on Video in the early 1990s when VSC used to distribute rental and sell through videos all over the island. He also signed the first licensee deals with two major music companies, BMG & Sony in the mid nineties.

He was instrumental to bring disco music to Malta through deals with labels such as Carrerre (Boney M, Sheila B Devotion and others), Baby Records, Italy (La Bionda and others). Joe Borg had left VSC in 2000 but kept two “Exotique” outlets. He then set up Visco Enterprises in 2001.

The licensee deal gives certain rights to the licensee such as the right to take civil action and it is expected that civil damages will be claimed in cases of piracy as well as the unauthorised importation, distribution, renting and selling of Region 1 DVDs in the case of Universal titles for which Visco have rights for Malta, a company statement said.

Current trade arrangements will not be upset and all wholesalers/distributors have been given the opportunity to keep on supplying their clients with product.