Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. will end its video and DVD distribution business in South Korea because of illegal downloads of movies from the Internet.

Warner Home Video Korea will withdraw from the business as of Dec. 31 and the last title to be released will be ``The Dark Knight'' on Dec. 19, the company said in a statement on Nov. 10.

Warner Bros. will instead expand its digital business and focus on distributing digital content, according to the statement. Warner Bros. last month said it would become the first Hollywood studio in Korea to release movies through video-on-demand two weeks before the official DVD release.

South Korea's DVD market declined to 70 billion won ($51.5 million) in 2006 from a peak of 108.5 billion won in 2004, according to the latest data from the Korean Film Council.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Cho in Seoul at kcho2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 12, 2008 02:09 EST