Feasibility Study of a Digital Platform for the delivery of UK ... - BFI

UK FILM COUNCIL
As a result, our analysis shows that the bottom four fifths of the market share between them 30 per cent of the total accruing to the UK
and specialised sector as a whole. About 15 per cent goes to the second highest group of films, and another 15 per cent is shared
between the third, fourth and fifth groups. In the online rental market, films at all levels of box-office appeal outside the top 20 per cent
have significantly increased market share. In crude terms, their share of the overall pie has increased by a factor of two to three times
compared with traditional forms of exploitation.
It would certainly be an exaggeration to say that the advent of the online rental business has created ‘a level playing field’ within the UK
and specialised film segment, but what it has done is facilitate a market for those films which are all but excluded from cinemas and
traditional rental and retail stores because of their in-built limitations on distribution, heavily biased to the top end of the market.
The concept of the Internet as a democratising and equalising medium for information applies equally to consumers’ access to
entertainment content --- specifically film content as a packaged medium. The evolution of online rental (and indeed retail) services has
allowed consumers who are interested in viewing UK or specialised films, but who do not live in an area where there is sufficient demand
for such titles to be stocked in local stores, to access them. We believe that this will continue to be the case for platforms with an
extremely wide range of content and choice (as per the online rental model) delivering digitally distributed films.
Increasing the market for the UK and specialised film sector?
We have shown that the advent of new distribution platforms has redressed some bias against those films that are not the top performing
titles within the UK and specialised film segment itself. But do these outlets increase the share taken by this segment as a whole?
To measure this we have split the UK and specialised films into two groups --- those distributed theatrically in the UK during 2003 and
2004 respectively --- and analysed their share of the total market over a 12 month period in each of the four distribution conduits. As a
basis for comparison with the wider market, we have compared this with the equivalent metrics for the top 25 mainstream titles for both
2003 and 2004. The results are shown below.
Feasibility Study for a Digital Platform for the delivery of Independent UK films and Specialised films to the Home
UK Film Council © 2006
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