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

UK FILM COUNCIL
Other evidence
The scope for specialised films ever reaching pay-per-view (PPV) television or VoD is at best remote (as discussed below). Performances
of such titles on PPV platforms were analysed in depth in Screen Digest’s May 2004 report for the UK Film Council, and demonstrate little
financial return for the rights holder given the ‘shelf space’ issue of the technology.
Titles that have typically made it to Sky PPV recently have included Pathe’s ‘Motorcycle Diaries’, ‘Bad Education’, and Artificial Eye’s
‘Barbarian Invasions’ --- again, theatrical exposure having a considerable part to play in the selection process. Typical buy-rates are
around 10,000 buys on Sky PPV for a title that has generated £2m at the box office. At £3.50 per purchase, and a 50/50 revenue share,
this would translate into around £15,000 of PPV revenues for the distributor.
In the VoD environment, the situation is not much different, although it is still early days. As an example, the BFI has a rolling annual
deal with VideoNetworks to make content available to the latter’s Subscription VoD (SVoD) service over the Homechoice platform. At
present, fifteen titles have been selected --- mostly higher profile titles such as Isaac Julien’s ‘Young Soul Rebels’. But the returns have
been negligible (Homechoice’s SVoD service Movies Express only has around 2,000 customers – of whom about 20-25 per cent have
accessed the BFI titles). Pathe, which also has a deal in place with VideoNetworks, has had a similar experience with its content --- with
returns of around 20p per viewing per title. Other distributors who have had previous dealings with VideoNetworks include Tartan Films
and Artificial Eye, although this was when the service provider’s platform was still trying to find a foothold in the market and the deals
have since lapsed.
Few companies involved in the VoD space had access to internal research demonstrating demand for specialised films, not least because
specialised titles currently make up only a very small portion of on-demand libraries. However, Homechoice and FilmFlex both indicated
that they felt World and Independent film performed well in an on-demand environment.
Homechoice said it offers a lot of World Cinema content which does ‘OK for the platform’, but added that this was ‘not the whole story’:
the studios dump so much low-grade content in the rights deals that it affects overall performance of the Studio content in a negative
way. FilmFlex separately claims that its cable VOD service is seeing a greater consumption of library and independent film than expected
at 40 per cent of buys. Indie product outperforms that of the big Studios on value versus time on the network basis.
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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