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DigiTraining Plus
2009: In six months there has been a 25% increase in the number of digital screens in Europe’s cinemas: this is the most important finding in the figures at 30 June 2008, elaborated by MEDIA Salles, the organization operating in the field of cinema with the support of the European Union’s MEDIA Programme and the Italian Government. The results announced today, 27 February, in London, during the sixth edition of the DigiTraining Plus course, show a total of 1,115 screens fitted with projectors using DLP Cinema or CineAlta 4K technology, situated in 614 complexes. Six months previously, the figures were 897 screens in 550 venues. The average number of digital screens per complex, which now stands at 1.8 continues to grow: this confirms the fact that the exhibiting companies tend to place a larger number of digital projectors in the same cinema, in order to guarantee digital screening for the whole of a film’s commercial life cycle, both when demand is at its height and when only the tail end of demand remains to be satisfied. With 289 units, the United Kingdom is still the country with the highest
number of digital projectors, followed by France (162) and Germany
(158), now more or less at the same level. “The increase in Europe’s digital screens in 2008 was influenced mainly by the decision taken by CGR, the third largest French exhibiting company, which was the first to start the conversion of its approx. 400 screens,” stressed Elisabetta Brunella, Secretary General of MEDIA Salles, when commenting on the figures presented in London today. “The growth trend recorded in the first half of the year should turn out to be confirmed in the second, judging from the provisional data already available, which shows that the installation of digital projectors is increasingly accompanied by the installation of an auxiliary system for stereoscopic projection. In other words, today 3D films are one of the strongest motivations for the digital transition.” The complete figures on Europe’s digital screens at 30 June 2008
are available on the MEDIA Salles website in the European
Cinema Yearbook section. MEDIA Salles, a project operating within the framework of the European Union's MEDIA Programme, with the support of the Italian Government, fosters theatrical distribution of European audiovisual products, both by high profile campaigns involving Europe's cinema exhibitors and by initiatives to raise the visibility of European productions with industry players and potential audiences, creating specialized information channels on a global scale. Thus the current initiatives from MEDIA Salles dovetail in a program with a triple focus – training, promotion and information – and maximum combined effect. |