Alternative content will offer significant income
for cinemas
November 30, 2009
Source: Screen Digest
The global market
for alternative content in cinemas is forecast to be worth
over half a billion dollars by 2014 ($526m), rising from $45.7m
in 2008, according to a new report entitled ‘Alternative
Content in Cinemas: Market assessment and forecasts to 2014’
by media analyst Screen Digest.
The USA accounted for two-thirds of global alternative content
revenues in 2008, but this will decline to 47.9 per cent by
2014, as the market for non- movie programming in cinemas
expands globally.
The cinema is becoming a multi-arts venue
Although it has been tested in cinemas for nearly a decade,
it is only in the past two years, with the growth of the digital
cinema screen base to over 12,000 screens worldwide, that
non-movie programming in cinemas has begun to make a real
impact. High-profile events such as New York’s Metropolitan
Opera beaming live into cinemas (earning global revenues of
$36m last season) have raised the profile of this fledgling
sector.
Cinema exhibitors are catching on to the revenue potential
of screening events at price levels higher than the average
cinema ticket, with some opera-in-cinema tickets in the UK
selling at £35/$59, while boosting occupancy rates in
what are often traditional downtimes. The cinema is now becoming
a multi-arts venue, with a range of live and recorded events
attracting new audiences and offering existing audiences more
variety.
However, the report’s lead author,
Screen Digest’s Head of Film and Cinema, David Hancock,
believes that “despite the sector’s recent development,
there are still challenges to be addressed. Further growth depends
on several factors coming together, chief amongst which is growth
of the wider digital cinema market. This has been driven by
3D during 2009 in preparation for the upcoming James Cameron
movie, Avatar, but growth may slow as the move towards to 3D
levels out. As well as digital cinema, the exhibitor needs to
have a satellite infrastructure in place, something that is
still in the early stages.”
Alternative content offers new players
scope for market entry
Alternative content is most attractive when it can be offered
as a recurring business and this needs content aggregators
to bring together a range of attractive ‘in-cinema’
programming. The high-profile events tend to be opera, theatre
and some sport, but a wide range of other content is appearing
on cinema screens, including live Q&A link-ups, comedy,
music concerts, poetry, President Obama’s inauguration
and even Michael Jackson’s memorial service.
As a result, new players are entering the theatrical distribution
arena, specialising in these innovative forms of content.
These include US screen advertising companies NCM and Screenvision,
digital deployment groups such as Arts Alliance Media, Cinedigm
and XDC, and specialist outfits including UK’s more2screen
and US distributor Emerging Pictures.
The screen in 3D
Digital 3D will also drive the development of alternative
content in cinemas. Live-action concert films, such as Hannah
Montana and U23D, led the first experiments with 3D for alternative
content. This area is now growing as some broadcasters, such
as Sky and ESPN, lead the way by preparing content for upcoming
3D TV channels. They are experimenting with production and
screening techniques on the only medium equipped for digital
3D at present. With over 6,000 3D-equipped screens around
the world, and over 10,000 screens committed to installing
3D worldwide, there is sufficient audience potential to attract
new content and companies.
One of these is AEG Live, one of the world’s
largest event companies, which announced Larger than Life
in 3D featuring Dave Matthews Band, to be released onto 400
US cinema screens in December 2009. AEG Live intend to collect
performances from as many as 100 artists in 3D by 2010, with
the underlying aim of replicating a concert experience for
theatrical release, highlighting the potential that 3D alternative
content in cinemas offers.
Charlotte Jones, Senior Analyst, Film and
Cinema and co-author of the report says “With live 3D
the pinnacle of the consumer experience, cinema exhibitors
are now poised to capitalise on a expanding portfolio of 3D
events scheduled for 2010. Added to the proven success of
3D movies in 2009, digital technology continues to unlock
incremental value for exhibitors with alternative content
primed to deliver an ancillary but lucrative sideline."
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