June 02, 2010

Nearly 17 per cent of Western Europe's cinema screens are now digitised and we are well into the mainstream conversion process. The big pan-regional circuits are starting to announce their digital plans and timetables (recently Odeon & UCI, UGC and Cinestar have announced full or partial conversions), increasing the momentum towards the inevitable digitisation of European cinema distribution and exhibition. Outside of the Virtual Print Fee finance, private finance is backing the third-party integrators and contributing to exhibitor contributions. However, in parallel, the public sector has begun to formulate its own policies towards supporting certain segments of cinema exhibition, including the European Commission, and will feed into the overall financial requirements for the switch. David Hancock, Head of Film and Cinema, presented the key trends in the conversion process towards digital cinema, using Q1 2010 data and highlighted the various approaches to digitisation taken in Western Europe.

Pages: 17

Tags: