20/09/2002

In the keynote speech he made on Wednesday at the annual conference of French film exhibitors, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, the minister for culture and communications, voiced his opinion about digital screening. “We must take care that this technical innovation does not upset relations between actors..” he said and insisted the industry be “watchful about economic conditions and any changes to it”.
At present just two French cinemas, the Aquaboulevard in Paris and the Nef Chavant multiplex in Grenoble, have digital screening facilities. The implementation of this technology that was launched three years ago by George Lucas has not been as swift as initially expected because of the huge costs that exhibitors must sustain. Moreover industry operators are very worried about the risks of piracy. A recent study into the “digitalisation” of the film industry carried out by Olivier Bomsel and Gilles Blanc of Ecole des Mines’ industrial workshop, calls exhibitors’ reluctance to implement digital screening methods “ strategically important”. The report states that the cost of fitting theatres with the new technology is far too onerous for exhibitors to sustain, especially since it is distributors who reap the biggest benefits: they have no constraints as to the number of prints produced and are free to exploit their films on every available channel (theatres, terrestrial and pay-TV and homevideo). The report ended by saying that European film exhibitors were, for the time being, resisting any changes to the fragile balance of power that exists between the local and global markets, and simply not undertaking any new initiatives.

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(Translated from French)