Cable TV digitisation in India: Regulator unveils national digital cable TV plan
The regulator has unveiled the plan to digitise India's cable systems, starting in April 2006, with the aim of covering all cities with populations of at least a million within four years.

by: David Scott
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Television
country / region: India,

Estonian television profile: Fewer than one in 10 households has gone digital so far
Fewer than one in 10 television households has gone digital so far.

by: Rob Borgeaud
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 1
industry: Television
country / region: Estonia,

UMD video starts strongly in UK: Format took one per cent of all video sales in first month
Over 100,000 copies of Sony's proprietary Universal Media Disc (UMD) sold during the first month on the market in the UK. Top-selling title is a compilation of goals from the Premier League.

by: Marie Bloomfield, Helen Davis Jayalath
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 4
industry: Video & DVD
country / region: UK,

World DVD growth slows to crawl: DVD shipments rise but returns are slowed by falling prices
DVD shipments rise but financial returns are slowed by falling prices World consumer spending on buying and renting video software rose by just over 10 per cent to almost $58bn in 2004. Strong growth in DVD spending compensated for the decline in VHS and Video CD (VCD) software spending over the same period. Worldwide spending on DVD was more than five times spending on VHS, at nearly $48bn -- an increase of over 31 per cent compared with a year earlier.

by: David Scott
Pages: 8 - Charts and Tables: 17
industry: Video & DVD

Asia-Pacific Cinema Markets: Markets are dominated by the key multiplex operators
A snapshot of trends in screen openings, multiplex construction, admissionsand box office revenue.

by: Charlotte Jones
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 7
industry: Film & Cinema Asia-Pacific

OZ online DVD renters square: Market leader introduces aggressive pricing policy
Aggressive pricing policies are being introduced into Australia's online DVD rental market in an effort to stimulate a market with only 0.5 per cent penetration.

by: David Scott
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Video & DVD
country / region: Australia,

Progress in local loop unbundling
As incumbent telcos' exchanges and networks are opened up to competition, allowing development of Internet Protocol and other services, prices for both wholesale and fully unbundled activities are beginning to fall.

by: Dan Cryan, Arash Amel
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Broadband Europe

Screen ads drive digitisation
With over 15,000 screens worldwide now showing digital advertising, cinemas' advertising revenue was up 23 per cent in 2004.

by: David Hancock
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 4
industry: Film & Cinema

TV programme sales in UK, France
UK's worldwide television programme sales almost doubled in 2004 compared with the previous year. Animation is France's most successful genre.

by: Tim Westcott
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 6
industry: Television
country / region: UK, France,
topics: Free-to-air television, Pay television, TV content

High definition television: European services ready for lift-off
European HDTV services are ready for lift-off. All the prerequisites are in place and the first services are about to be launched in Germany, with highdefinition channels coming to the UK next year.

by: Vincent Létang
Pages: 3 - Charts and Tables: 6
industry: Television, Video & DVD Europe
topics: Free-to-air television, High definition television (HDTV), Next generation DVD (HD-DVD / BluRay), Pay television, PVR (DVR and home media gateways), TV content

Digital distribution of games: The spread of broadband is facilitating games-on-demand
The spread of broadband is facilitating the development of games-on-demand into a market that we forecast will be worth $104m in Europe and North America by 2010.

by: Piers Harding-Rolls
Pages: 5 - Charts and Tables: 5
industry: Games
topics: Games-on-demand, Games (leisure software), Online gaming

Israeli television profile: Seventeen in every 20 homes subscribe to pay TV services
Pay TV penetration was an impressive 85.7 per cent at the end of 2004

by: Rob Borgeaud
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 1
industry: Television
country / region: Israel,
topics: Free-to-air television, Pay television, PVR (DVR and home media gateways)

Korean rental market evolves: Broadband alters traditional rental video practice
The world's highest broadband penetration rate affecting the market for video rentals

by: David Scott
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Video & DVD
country / region: Korea. Rep [S],
topics: Broadband access, Broadband content, DVD, Video software, Video-on-demand (VoD)

Russian cinema growth accelerates: Urban areas are still driving new screen growth
A quarter of all modern screens are housed in shopping centres. The 1,000 new screen threshold is expected to be reached this year.

by: David Hancock
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 5
industry: Film & Cinema
country / region: Russian Federation,
topics: Cinema exhibition

Top US independent Film Producers: Six producers participated in films with total budgets of $200m+
PG is the most profitable rating for US films but 50 per cent of the top 100 releases in 2004 were PG-13

by: David Hancock
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 6
industry: Film & Cinema
country / region: USA,
topics: Film production / content

Mass merchants rule over US Video: But specialist stores are more important in Western Europe
They accounted for a quarter of all sales worldwide in 2004. But specialist stores are more important in Western Europe.

Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 6
industry: Video & DVD
country / region: USA, Western Europe
topics: DVD, Video software

Europe leads digital screen rise: But Asia still has the world's highest proportion
The major growth of digital cinema screens is occurring in Europe, but Asia still has the largest share of digital screens.

by: Charlotte Jones
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Film & Cinema
topics: Cinema exhibition, Digital cinema / e-cinema

World cinema markets review: Global admissions have doubled in the past decade
There has been a surge of interest by venture capital firms taking ownership of prime exhibition chains with a view to streamlining existing operations Europe, mirroring the situation in North America. Private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners marched into the European cinema sector in late 2004. The group acquired the European interests of UCI as well as the UK's leading cinema circuit Odeon

by: Charlotte Jones, David Hancock
Pages: 8 - Charts and Tables: 12
industry: Film & Cinema
topics: Cinema distribution, Cinema exhibition

European protected TV events: Checklist of sporting events that must be available to free TV
Checklist of sporting events that must be available for free-to-air television under the European Union's Television Without Frontiers directive

by: Tim Westcott
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 1
industry: Television
topics: Free-to-air television, TV content

Is Hollywood losing its grip?: the economic stakes of California's lost production
The income and taxes lost to California's economy by one major movie shot outside the state is $200m, as the economic value is three times the film budget

by: David Hancock
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 5
industry: Film & Cinema
topics: Film production / content

Comedy is top genre for TVDVD: Dominance of comedy is a chacteristic of more mature markets
Comedy made up the entire top 10 DVD titles in the US market in 2004 and its success as a genre is a feature of more mature DVD markets

by: Helen Davis Jayalath
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 4
industry: Video & DVD
country / region: USA,
topics: DVD, TV content, Video software

High ticket prices in Nordic region: Scandinavia/Baltic region has vast potential for multiplex growth
Scandinavia and the Baltic states-where there has been a net loss of 600 screens in the past eight years-have huge growth potential for multiplex cinema development

by: Charlotte Jones
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Film & Cinema
topics: Cinema exhibition, Cinema market forecasts

How Blu-ray and HD-DVD line up: As Fox commits to Blu-ray and HD-DVD delays its launch
Blu-ray supporters accounted for 51 per cent of US DVD revenue in 2004, compared with HD-DVD's 38 per cent; they have a similar lead in Europe

by: Helen Davis Jayalath
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 7
industry: Video & DVD
country / region: USA, Western Europe
topics: DVD, Next generation DVD (HD-DVD / BluRay), Video software

Consolidation in Spanish cable TV: The original 12 companies from 1999 now down to four
The original 12 companies from the licensing round in 1999 are now down to four-all operating along the north coastal region-as the ONO/Auna merger mops up the rest of the country

by: Maria Aguete
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Television
country / region: Spain,
topics: Pay television

Pay TV operators scramble for rights and channels
Pay TV operators scramble for rights and channels. Broadband TV has positioned itself as the major provider of movies as channels swap platforms

Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Television
topics: IPTV, Pay television

Boom time for European channels: Growth in the number of new channels continues unabated
The last time we undertook this analysis, we noted that 2002 had witnessed the most European channel launches in history, with 145 new services in that year.

by: Guy Bisson, Maria Aguete
Pages: 8 - Charts and Tables: 22
industry: Television
topics: TV content

Low Italian DVD buy rates: Budget-priced news kiosks increasingly important to DVD sector
But budget-priced news kiosk sales are increasingly important to the DVD sector.

by: Helen Davis
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Video & DVD
topics: Video software

All-time top 100 films re-assessed: Half the films on the list were released over 30 years ago
-The top film is still Gone With the Wind, which helps make the 1930s the most profitable decade per film, and a third of all the films were released over 30 years ago

by: David Hancock
Pages: 6 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Film & Cinema
topics: Cinema exhibition

New video format: cautious hopes: Universal Media Disc meets with initial success in the US
Universal Media Disc (UMD), designed to play on Sony's PSP handheld games console, got off to a good start in the US.

by: Paul Callaghan
Pages: 3 - Charts and Tables: 6
industry: Video & DVD, Mobile
topics: Wireless mobile video

European cinema admissions trend: Summer weighting has skewed cinema attendance patterns
Not only have seasonal cinemagoing patterns varied between the main European territories but 2004 was also atypical

by: Charlotte Jones
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Film & Cinema
topics: Cinema exhibition

IPTV solution vendor update: Siemens aims to break Microsoft's dominance
Microsoft, in alliance with Alcatel, has won the most high-profile IPTV solutions contracts to date.

by: Guy Bisson, Maria Aguete
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 1
industry: Television, Broadband
topics: IPTV

Mobile video rights deals: Sports make the running - with football in pole position
Third-generation (3G) telephony is stimulating the market for content rights, with sport and particularly football the most important.

by: Tim Westcott
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Video & DVD, Mobile
topics: Wireless mobile video

DVD retail rules film spending
Retail video accounted for 29 per cent of feature film spending in 2004 and 48 per cent of studio revenues.

by: Helen Davis
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Video & DVD
topics: Video software

European video software markets
DVD spending beats VHS spending by more than eight to one

by: Helen Davis
Pages: 8 - Charts and Tables: 22
industry: Video & DVD Western Europe
topics: Video software, Video market forecasts

Home multimedia devices: Microsoft devices dominate the entertainment hardware market
Microsoft devices dominate the entertainment hardware market

by: Arash Amel
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Television, Broadband, Video & DVD
country / region: UK,
topics: IPTV, Music and audio, PVR (DVR and home media gateways), TV content, Video-on-demand (VoD)

West European exhibitors assessed
Five of top ten exhibitors in Western Europe are located in the UK

by: Charlotte Jones
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Film & Cinema Western Europe
topics: Cinema distribution, Cinema exhibition

Thomson's transformation
State-owned CE manufacturer to dedicated media services group

by: Guy Bisson
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Film & Cinema, Television, Video & DVD
country / region: France,
topics: Cinema exhibition, DVD, Film production / content

Top 50 entertainment companies
Top 10 companies account for nearly half the top 50's turnover

by: Tim Westcott
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 6
industry: Film & Cinema, Television, Video & DVD, Games, Broadband, Broadband
topics: Broadband access, Cinema exhibition, Digital terrestrial television (DTT), Film production / content, Games (leisure software), ISPs (Internet service providers), Music and audio, Online gaming, PVR (DVR and home media gateways), TV advertising, TV content, Video software, Video-on-demand (VoD)

Home entertainment tops retail
Outstrips other retail sectors despite rapid decline in music sales

by: Mark Smith
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 6
industry: Television, Video & DVD, Games Western Europe
topics: DVD, Games (leisure software), Music and audio

Feature film print processing
Top 300 US releases average over 12.5m film print feet each

by: David Hancock
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 5
industry: Film & Cinema
country / region: USA,
topics: Cinema exhibition

World film production and distribution: Production hits a plateau after six years of unbroken growth
In 2004, global film production edged up 0.4 per cent to reach 4,159 feature films produced worldwide, just 18 films more than the previous year. Levels of global film production have now been increasing consistently for the past six years, although in 2004 the rate of growth slowed dramatically.

by: Charlotte Jones
Pages: 8 - Charts and Tables: 10
industry: Film & Cinema
topics: Film production / content, Cinema distribution

Television status in Romania: DTH satellite opens to challenge Central Europe's cable leader
Romania has the highest cable TV penetration in all Central and Eastern Europe, with 52 per cent of all TVHH subscribing to cable at the end of 2004. But the market is still underdeveloped. All the cable services are analogue with no digital package available, and cable Internet figures are very low, only 1.3 per cent of the cable subscribers have high speed Internet.

by: Maria Aguete
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 1
industry: Television
country / region: Romania,
topics: Pay television, Free-to-air television

European movie TV rights: Free-to-air broadcasting is still important in much of Europe
Despite the growth of pay TV in Europe, and the widespread offer of specialist film channels and pay-perview platforms, free-to-air broadcasters are still the most important market for feature film distributors in most European territories.

by: Tim Westcott
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Television, Film & Cinema Europe
topics: Film production / content, Pay television

Films fare better on DVD in Japan: Non-films title dominance weakens as DVD takes hold
Unlike most territories, where feature films tend to dominate the retail sector, the preferred genres purchased on videocassettes in Japan have traditionally been non-film titles. In 2004, special interest titles (hobbies, how-to, etc) accounted for 29 per cent of VHS sales in Japan, followed by feature films with 27 per cent. In total, non-film titles represented a 73 per cent share of VHS sales in 2004.

by: David Scott, Helen Davis Jayalath
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Video & DVD
country / region: Japan,
topics: DVD, Video software

UK's digital screen network: Unique public digital trial in seven per cent of national screens
The UK Film Council has announced the list of cinemas that are to benefit from installation of a digital projector as part of the Digital Screen Network (DSN) managed by Arts Alliance Digital Cinema. As already discussed in Screen Digest on previous occasions (see, for example, 2005/109-116), the network is being established to increase the diversity of cinema programming for UK audiences, and also to increase access to cinema in under-served areas.

by: David Hancock
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Film & Cinema
country / region: UK,
topics: Digital cinema / e-cinema, Cinema exhibition

Broadband Cable Internet - Fast cable internet is far more widespread than cable telephony
Broadband cable internet has become central to the cable industry's overall revenue model in nearly every country in Europe. But the contribution that broadband internet makes to the overall revenue generated by cable varies greatly by country and gives insight into the different dynamics operating in cable and the wider pay television and broadband industries in each country.

by: Guy Bisson
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Television, Broadband Europe
topics: Broadband access, Pay television

Studio market share in decline: Non-studio distributors lead European video retails market
The arrival of DVD has forced distributors to compete on two fronts for a share of the European video market. Screen Digest's analysis of distributor market shares in key territories indicates that two distinct markets have emerged since 2000; a booming DVD market dominated by the studios that adopted the format early and a fading VHS market led by children's content specialists.

by: Marie Bloomfield, Helen Davis Jayalath
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Video & DVD Western Europe
topics: Video software, DVD

Download-to-own VoD
Launched January 2004, CinemaNow's download-to-own service is the first of its kind. Available worldwide, the retail video-on-demand (VoD) service realises the ambition of the Hollywood majors, offering them an insight into the business of digital delivery.

by: Marie Bloomfield, Arash Amel
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Television, Broadband, Video & DVD
country / region: USA,
topics: Broadband content, Digital rights management (DRM), Video-on-demand (VoD)

Chinas cinema prices rise fastest
Japan no longer has solely the most expensive cinema tickets in the world, after years of falling prices in the early part of the decade. In 2004 it shared the top spot with Switzerland for the first time with an average $11.50. In local currency terms, average prices in Japan have fallen for five of the past six years, although in 2003 there was a sharp reversal of ticket price deflation with prices increasing 2.3 per cent.

by: Charlotte Jones
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Film & Cinema
topics: Cinema exhibition

First know you consumers: What really makes DVD buyers decide to buy
What really makes DVD buyers decide to buy?

Pages: 8 - Charts and Tables: 8
industry: Video & DVD
country / region: UK,
topics: DVD, Video software

Global Middleware Market: Open TV dominates with half the worlds cable clients
Open TV dominates with half the world's cable clients. The allegiances are mapped

Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 6
industry: Television, Video & DVD
topics: Pay television, Video-on-demand (VoD), Digital terrestrial television (DTT)

Japan: Second largest film market: But the Japanese market is dominated by foreign blockbusters
But the Japanese market is dominated by foreign blockbusters and the single top title took 9.5 per cent of total box office revenue in 2004

by: Charlotte Jones
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Film & Cinema
country / region: Japan,
topics: Cinema exhibition, Cinema distribution

Europe's DSL markets: Alternative operators erode main incumbents' market shares
Alternative operators erode main incumbent telcos' market shares and unbundling of the local loop proceeds at widely varying paces in Europe

Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 1
industry: Broadband, Broadband
topics: Broadband access, Broadband forecasts

Digital terrestrial TV in France: Record initial set-top box sales hide rapid decline in uptake
Record initial set-top box sales hide rapid decline in uptake, but France is still ahead of Italy and Spain at this point in the cycle

by: Maria Aguete
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 4
industry: Television
country / region: France,
topics: Digital terrestrial television (DTT)

Digital Cinema sound: The digital pioneers are now coming to maturity
The digital pioneers are now coming to maturity, with over three-quarters of the world's modern auditoria converted for digital sound

by: David Hancock
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 5
industry: Film & Cinema
topics: Digital cinema / e-cinema, Music and audio

Non-film genres continue growth
TV product is driving growth of 'other' DVD product in Europe

Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Video & DVD
topics: Video software, DVD

Swedish television profile: Active DTH satellite market has stimulated the IPTV sector
Active DTH satellite market, with two satellite pay services, has stimulated the IPTV sector

by: Daniel Schmitt
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 0
industry: Television
country / region: Sweden,
topics: Pay television, IPTV, Digital terrestrial television (DTT)

Spaniards embrace video games: But most spend less than Euro100 year on new games
But most spend less than EURO100 a year on new games and pirate copies account for more than a quarter of all games owned

Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Games, Mobile
country / region: Spain,
topics: Games (leisure software), Wireless mobile gaming, Games-on-demand

Mobile games market on the move
After many years of anticipation, the market for games on mobile phones finally arrived in Europe in 2003 and really began to blossom in 2004. Two factors were key. First, mobile phone penetration in developed countries started to reach saturation, meaning that networks had to look towards non-voice services to increase revenue and act as a differentiating point to reduce churn. Second, downloadable technologies (and enabled handsets)— primarily Java-based—emerged to offer a compellingly simple (and billable) platform for the delivery of games.

by: Ben Keen
Pages: 3 - Charts and Tables: 7
industry: Games, Mobile, Video & DVD
topics: Wireless mobile video, Games (leisure software)

Spain's video market disappoints: Piracy and politics result in first decline in a decade
Spain is one of the big five markets in Europe and has one of the 10 largest video markets worldwide in terms of both consumer spending and distributor revenues. However, piracy and industry politics combined to depress the Spanish video market in 2004.

by: Helen Davis Jayalath
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 3
industry: Film & Cinema, Video & DVD, Video & DVD
country / region: Spain,
topics: DVD, Video software

Italian television profile: Providing a benchmark for new TV platforms
The Italian television market has the lowest pay TV penetration of any of the big five European markets, but a number of unique characteristics mean that the country has become a benchmark for pioneering IPTV service and hybrid pay/free digital terrestrial television making it one of the most important markets to watch.

by: Guy Bisson
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 1
industry: Television
country / region: Italy,
topics: Free-to-air television, Pay television, IPTV

US cable prices rise faster than DTH: But price per cable channel is lower and falling
According to the latest report of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), average cable subscription fees have been increasing at a higher rate than average direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television subscription fees over the last two years.

Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Television
topics: Pay television

Why studios don't care about rental: Former key revenue stream rental now just 16 per cent of total
Back in 1994, video rental accounted for 42.5 per cent of total worldwide distributor revenues of $11.8bn from video software, or $5.0bn. Furthermore, the sector was underpinned by a business model which meant that the rentailers, rather than the video distributors, carried all the risk.

by: Helen Davis Jayalath
Pages: 1 - Charts and Tables: 2
industry: Video & DVD
topics: Video software

Russian cinema in transition: Russian cinema in transition: Regions are playing catch up to key urban centres
Russia has the potential to become one of the largest box office markets in the world, along with China and India.

by: David Hancock
Pages: 2 - Charts and Tables: 5
industry: Film & Cinema
country / region: Russian Federation,
topics: Cinema exhibition

UK independent cinema reviewed: Indies have a third of screens yet only a fifth of admissions
The UK independent cinema exhibition sector accounts for 32 per cent of all screens in the UK. There has been much change around the independents, with significant consolidation in the multiples as venture capital companies have acquired much of the sector. However, independents have still increased their box office revenues by 36 per cent between 1998 and 2004 (from £108m to £146.9m).

by: David Hancock