16/05/2011

According to the statistics provided by Media Salles at the Cannes Film Festival, the number of European screens equipped with DLP Cinema or SXRD technology on December 31, 2010 totaled 10,346, with a 120.9% rise over the previous year. Compared to the total number of screens in Europe, in December 2010 digital screens had achieved a market penetration of 29%, against 13.4% in 2009.

The rate of market penetration for digital screens – the highest figures being in Luxembourg (73%) and in Belgium (65%) – has also experienced significant changes in the largest markets, reaching over the European average in the United Kingdom (38%), Russia (38%) and France (34%), but remaining below the overall rate for Europe in Germany (27%), Italy (23%) and Spain (19%).

The number of digital sites in Europe in December 2010 was 4,120, with a 74.1% rise over the previous year. The total market penetration of digital sites amounts to around 33% as against 18.7% in December 2009. Also on the increase is the average number of screens in digital sites, which has risen in Europe from the 1.6 screens per site registered in December 2007, to 2.5 in December 2010.

The average number of digital screens per cinema varies widely in individual European countries. In December 2010 the highest figures were recorded in Belgium (6.8 screens per cinema), Luxembourg (4.8), Portugal (4.8), Austria (4.3), Latvia (3.7), Romania (3.6), Estonia (3.5) and France (3.5). Of the largest markets, the lowest figures can be noted in Italy (1.9 screens per cinema), lower than the UK (3.1), Spain (2.6) and Germany (2.2).

The biggest markets in terms of ticket sales also account for the largest percentage of digital screens out of the overall total for Europe, so that France comes in first place with 18.2% of Europe’s digital screens, followed by the UK (13.6%), Germany (12.1%), Russia (9.1%), Italy (8.8%) and Spain (7.3%).