(Yicai Global) Feb. 12 -- Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Group has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with a distributor of Walt Disney Co. that will introduce over 1,000 episodes of the latter's animated series and 100 films to the former.

Alibaba Digital Media, an entertainment arm of China's e-commerce colossus Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., announced today that the deal with Disney unit Buena Vista International Inc. will see episodes of classic series like Duck Tales, and My Friends Tigger & Pooh as well as popular animated films like Beauty and the Beast, Mulan and Frozen released on the Group's video website Youku.com, TechWeb reported.

addition of Disney content will greatly enrich the library of quality international content, advance the group's entertainment strategy, and consolidate Youku's leading position within the industry, said Yang Weidong, rotating president of Alibaba Digital Media.

The Group also inked similar licensing deals with NBC Universal Inc. and Sony Pictures Television Inc. to gain the right to broadcast multiple well-known film series such as The Fast and the Furious, Resident Evil, and Spider-Man in December. Alibaba announced the setup of Alibaba Digital Media in June 2016, with a lineup Youku bought for USD5.6 billion in 2015.