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

UK FILM COUNCIL
Exploitation of rights via on-demand platforms: current trends
The ‘on-demand’ video delivery market in the UK, whether in a walled garden environment or over the open Internet, is still in its
infancy. However, the development of the sector is very much a reflection of deals already in place in the PPV and pay-TV windows --- a
situation that can vary considerably from distributor to distributor.
According to the UK Film Council’s statistics, there were 521 films falling into the UK independent and specialised film category that
obtained a theatrical release in 2003 and 2004 combined. The total box office take for these films combined was £150m over the two
years. In 2003, there were 244 films released, taking £60.5m, equivalent to 8.2 per cent share of total UK box office for that year. In
2004, though the total number of films released rose slightly to 277 titles, revenue generated at the box office increased by 50 per cent
to £90m, equivalent to an 11.7 per cent share of total UK box office in 2004.
Despite this trend, most UK independent and specialised titles still have not been able to exploit their rights in the pay-per-view (PPV)
window. At the upper end, the largest distributor of UK independent and specialised titles has had 40 per cent of its library so far picked
up for PPV. In contrast, one of the newer, smaller distributors, with a consolidated library of around 30 titles as of end 2005, had yet to
strike a single PPV deal. For most distributors --- those with accumulated libraries c. 100-150 titles in 2005 --- the reality is that the PPV
window is exploited in an estimated 20 per cent of cases.
If a hypothetical 15 per cent average is applied to all 521 titles in the UK independent and specialised film category that obtained a
theatrical UK release in 2003 and 2004, the result would be that only 79 would have monetized the PPV window in that timeframe.
Needless to say, however, not only are platform revenues from PPV and VoD services very limited but the titles offered are at the mercy
of platform operators’ ‘cherry picking’. In the PPV environment, for example, where ‘shelf-space’ is an issue, Sky Box Office had
dedicated eight of its 53 PPV movie channels in the week beginning 7 th November 2005 to what could be categorised as UK independent
and specialised titles. All were high profile and had significant recognition value following theatrical and DVD releases (‘9 Songs’, ‘House
of Flying Daggers’, ‘The Machinist’, ‘Melinda and Melinda’ and ‘Creep’). This was compared to 18 studio titles being screened on the
remaining 45 channels.
Homechoice, in the same week of 7 th November 2005, was screening 54 unique films on its Film 1 st new release channel (as distinct from
its catalogue ‘a la carte’ VoD channel Movies Now and the subscription VoD (SVoD) channel Movies Express). Of the 54, approximately 15
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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