PRESS RELEASE

Milan, 17 February 2011

EUROPE’S DIGITAL SCREENS CONTINUE TO GROW:
OVER 10,000 AT THE START OF 2011

Over 10,000 in Europe’s movie theatres: this is the figure for digital projectors using DLP Cinema TM or SXRD technology, according to the estimates elaborated by MEDIA Salles from the first results at the start of 2011.
 
From the figures announced by Elisabetta Brunella, Secretary General of MEDIA Salles, during Eurocinema Expo that took place in Cracow in February, it is evident that the growth in digital installations recorded in 2009 and continuing in the first half of 2010 has not halted over the past six months. On the contrary, the six leading European markets (respectively France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain) count a total of 6,907 digital screens with a 52% increase compared to 30 June 2010 (when there were 4,543) and 118% compared to 1st January 2010 (3,174). Projections for the whole of Europe show that at 1st January 2011 there were around 10,100 digital projectors, i.e. slightly less than 30% of the world total, estimated at almost 36,000 units.
 
On the basis of these figures MEDIA Salles has updated the forecast for the target of 50% digital screens out of the total 37,000 screens operating in Europe. This threshold - which is considered crucial for distributors to replace 35mm film with a digital format – should be reached between the end of 2011 and the start of 2012, considerably in advance of the estimates available up to the present.

Who are we?
MEDIA Salles is a project operating within the European Union’s MEDIA Programme, whose twentieth anniversary celebrations it shares in 2011. This project, which enjoys the support of the Italian Government, promotes European cinema thanks to work on training and information involving European cinema exhibitors.

Attention focuses in particular on the theatrical developments and implications of digital projection and on the training of exhibitors in this field: from 29 June to 3 July in Helsinki and Tallinn the eighth edition will be held of “DigiTraining Plus”, the only initiative by the MEDIA Programme to deal with the new technology from the perspective of the movie theatre. The course was presented at the International Berlin Film Festival on Saturday 12 February (to watch the video of this presentation: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Media-Salles/156508607711231?sk=wall) .

Work on information, including their consolidated tools for the promotion of European films, has recently been integrated by MEDIA Salles by added attention to the social network: a page has been created on Facebook, with a constantly updated information service, the calendar of international releases for Italian films, with dates, countries of release and a wealth of other information.