Producers, keep the money for 35mm!
Want a distrbution deal ? Want to keep your DIY plans viable ? What about keeping an eye on the not-yet-dead 35 mm format ?
What should I expect from my VOD rights ?
This week I have been invited to take part to the annual convention of Europa Distribution, the european network of independant distributors. As usual, they have gather pretty neet panels on highly important issues, and I have been requested to make a presentation on relations between distributors and VOD platform.
I have worked for 18 months for an online VOD platform and I have to confess that the market is at its early beginnings. First, technologically speaking, the business is going to explode once optical fiber will have equipped much of the European territory. indeed it is hard to make people pay for a film they can't stream correctly because their bandwidth is not broad enough, or they have to download and can only watch it 6h later. Moreover, definition of images remains lower than a Blu-Rays is sound is more than often stereo only. 15% of the users of illegal platforms they they would like to pay if the content would be of higher quality, which confirms the above.
Second, it is very often difficult for a platform to close deals with distributors. As put by Italian Internet service Provider Fastweb in a reflection for Media : "Currently, the new media offers are hindered, inter alia, by the content providers’ commercial practice to sell their works based on exclusive rights or holdbacks clauses, granted in favour of specific players (often in dominant position on old media), thereby preventing the circulation of contents on new platforms. As a consequence, all involved players (new platforms, ISPs and aggregators of content for new media) have serious problems in accessing audiovisual works and therefore satisfying consumers’ demand. The system in place ultimately results in great barriers to entry for the above companies, and an increase of illegal means such as piracy, on the side of consumers". To this you can add that often distributors just don't want to loose their time, and thus their money, dealing with a market that is not generating a huge bunch of money for now.
Of course the deal is different for all well-advised producers that have kept the VOD rights of their film and are thus able to exploit them in an efficient, multi-territory fashion. And to get in pole-position for when the market really signifies big figures, distributors still need to begin close VOD deals with platforms. This is where we can help - it is part of our consultancy job.
I hope my intervention there will help some of the distributors and guide them through the new galaxy of this business, even if I might be provocative and stire their mind a bit around the idea that VOD will grow big... if the theaters enter the game. If you want to know more, you will have to come to the annual conference,... or just email me luc.martinon@hors-ecran.com