06/09/2012 - The quantity of European digital screens has grown by 17 percent in the first half of 2012. MEDIA Salles presented their latest statistics at the International Venice Film Festival

The trend which brought Europe to start 2012 with over half of its screens as digital continues astride. On 30 June 2012, the penetration of digital technologies inside the 35 countries monitored by MEDIA Salles reached 60.5 per cent.

The amount of European screens equipped with DLP™ Cinema o SXRD™ technology has boomed to around 22,000. According to MEDIA Salles’ most recent data, presented during the Venice Film Festival, on 30 June 2012, digital screens were 21,789 in Europe with a growth of 17.4 percent since the beginning of the year, when they were 18,566.

There are however considerable differences between different markets. Beyond Norway and Luxemburg, which screens have long all been completely digital, and the Netherlands which is about to reach complete conversion too, the level of digitalisation is above average in Belgium (93%), in Finland (around 89%), in Denmark (87.9%), in Great Britain (around 86%) and in France (80.5%). Behind average levels is Germany (around 54%), Italy (46.8%), Spain (around 43%) and especially small scale markets like Greece (16.9%), Slovenia (14.4%), Turkey (14.1%) and Serbia (10.3%).

The biggest markets with the biggest amount of tickets sold also have the highest percentage of digital screens compared to the rest of Europe. France has the largest percentage of digital screens with 4,397, finding itself in first position with 20.2% of Europe’s digital screens. France is followed by Great Britain (3,216 digital screens, representing 14.8%), Germany (2,500 digital screens, amounting to 11.5%), Italy (1,815 digital screens amounting to 8.3%), Spain (1,750 digital screens, amounting to 8%) and Russia (1,632 digital screens, amounting to 7.5%).

(Translated from Italian)