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

UK FILM COUNCIL
AOL UK
On Demand Offering
AOL is the UK’s largest ISP not to directly own its own network, and overall the country’s third largest broadband ISP behind BT and NTL.
Content has always been a core component of the AOL strategy, choosing to pioneer a walled-garden approach over the Internet.
Effectively, AOL members (whether subscribed to AOL broadband or not) can download a unique browser application and for a monthly
fee access entertainment content, news and e-commerce facilities via the PC.
AOL UK
2003 2004 2005
Broadband households 250.0 750.0 1445
Source: Screen Digest
However, despite its association with Warner Bros, AOL UK has yet to offer anything by way of feature film or premium television
content. At present its offering is limited to extended trailers and selected highlights from titles about to be launched at theatrical. In a
recent in-depth conversation with Warner Bros executives, it has come to Screen Digest’s attention that a deal has been struck with AOL
on premium movies enabling the ISP to carry around 100 Warner Bros movies from 1Q 2006. The deal is expected to be on an output
basis, with 20 new titles a year, including ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’. AOL has yet to determine
pricing, but the terms of the deal are likely to be on a par with others struck by Warner Bros around Europe; namely, in the PPV window,
being exploited on an a la carte rental basis, with no burn rights nor portability permitted. Nevertheless, with Warner having a roadmap
for eventual digital retail, it is expected that films will be made available for electronic sell-through, possibly in the DVD retail window in
some cases, through AOL UK at some point in late 2006 (though it should be noted that this may be somewhat contingent on security
and copy-protection issues being resolved around DVD burning and portability).
As AOL comes to finally reap the value of its very costly association with Time Warner, it is expected that the UK arm of the company will
come to benefit from the alliance in a manner it has not done so far. One possibility will be to follow trends set by AOL in the US, which in
November 2005 announced the 2006 launch of a free Internet TV service called In2TV, featuring exclusive access to 3,400 hours of
programming from 4,800 episodes spanning 100 series of Warner Bros-produced television shows. The US service will be ad-supported
and organised under six channels divided by comedy, drama, animation, action, classic and superhero/villain genres. The eventual aim is
to add up to 14,000 episodes from 300 series Warner Bros has currently cleared with rights holders. AOL, which has pulled out of US
broadband provision in favour of simply being a content portal and aggregator, and which currently has approximately 64m unique
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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