EUROPEAN
DIGITAL SCREENS INCREASE BY 25%
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 countries whose growth rate is above the European average are France
which more than doubles the numbers of digital screens, from 66 to 162,
and Italy, growing from 38 to 57.
On the smaller markets there are significant growth rates in Portugal
(from 14 to 25), in Switzerland (from 16 to 23) and in Finland (from
1 to 6).
“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 MEDIASALLES WEBSITE IN THE EUROPEAN
CINEMA YEARBOOK SECTION.
MEDIA Salles
Piazza Luigi di Savoia, 24 – 20124 Milan - Italy
Tel.: +39.02.67397823 – Fax: +39.02.6690410
E-mail: infocinema@mediasalles.it
Website: www.mediasalles.it
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