Europe: Film distribution to change for ever

Submitted by pervaizalam on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 13:49. -->

The future of film distribution is in the process of changing for ever. The recent announcement that Warner Bros. has decided to release films on DVD and Video-on-Demand on the same day has only served to further transform the traditional scheme of release windows. The old release chronology of cinema – video – TV no longer holds true in a world of new technologies and audiovisual media services. So what are these media windows that visionaries are talking about? EU Commission tries to answer the questions in a new report with an eye on the future.

Let's try to understand this first. The marketing of a film depends, among other things, on arrangements concerning the chronological distribution of exploitation rights. In many ways, it is rather like dividing up a cake, except that media windows are being distributed rather than slices of cake: Who gets the best piece? Is everyone satisfied? Is there anything left over? Was it worth making? asks the author of the report.

For the producer, a film is worth making if the revenue it generates at least covers the production costs. One way of achieving this is to define chronological periods and sell exploitation rights for the various media. Cinema, television services in their different forms, IPTV, Video on Demand, etc. can be served one after the other, with the rights sold for varying lengths of time.