VoD vs. Cinema?

European Audiovisual Observatory Afternoon Workshop in Cannes breaks all records

Over 350 film professionals crowded into the Palais des Festivals in Cannes to attend the European Audiovisual Observatory's workshop on VoD on Saturday. This broke all attendance records compared with previous workshops organized by the Observatory in Cannes.

The Observatory's Executive Director, Wolfgang Closs, said that the ever increasing number of film professionals attending the Observatory afternoon in Cannes was a proof of the respect accorded to the work of this organization. Closs also felt that "the chosen theme of VoD clearly hit the right note as the hot topic of this year's film market."

The conference was very ably moderated by Serge Siritzky, Managing Director of French Trade "ECRAN TOTAL".

Aviva Silver, Head of the Media Programme, European Commission, opened the proceedings with her reflections on the opportunities which VoD will offer to producers and potential new projects. Regarding the title of the workshop, Silver rather felt that VoD was "for" cinema as opposed to "against". She mentioned the inevitable influences which this new method of distribution would have on the chain of values and stated that "MEDIA has always been close to the rights holders." She concluded that it would be necessary to take into account this form of digital technology and the new opportunities it would offer for the future.

Left: Serge Siritzky

Susan Newman-Baudais

A brand new report  - "Video on Demand in Europe" - was then presented by André Lange, Head of the Observatory's Department for Information on Markets and Financing and Laure Kaltenbach, Head of the Office of Economic Evaluations of the  French Direction des Médias (DDM). The report was drafted by NPA Conseil in collaboration with the Observatory and the Direction des Médias.

Laure Kaltenbach

Ruth Hieronymi

André Lange stated that with more than 150 services operational in Europe, VoD now exists as a segment of the market even if the general absence of data makes it difficult to estimate its real importance. However, we can hope that in the long term the long tail effect of VoD will benefit European films." [Download André Lange's presentation here ]

Laure Kaltenbach emphasised that « 70% of the most watched content on YouTube is content protected by copyright." This was the cue to hand over to the legal section of the workshop. [Download Laure Kaltenbach's presentation in French here ]

Francisco Cabrera-Blazquez from the Observatory's Department for Legal Information dealt with the use of Digital Right Management in this field [see IRIS Plus 2007-01]. Stef Van Gompel from Amsterdam's Institute for Information Law dealt with VoD distribution of orphaned works. Van Gompel stated that, according to a survey carried out by the European Association of Cinematheques, "over 50,000 titles in European archives can be classified as orphaned works."
[Download Stef van Gompel's presentation here and IRIS Plus 2007-4 ]

Ruth Hieronymi, the European Parliament's spokeswoman for audiovisual matters, presented the latest state of play concerning the Television without Frontiers Directive. She stated that the revision of this legal framework comes "just in time" and that this legal framework for the EU support of non linear services will represent "a chance for all EU producers". Hieronymi also insisted on the duty to ensure correct interoperability between all services provided and felt that, at the moment, insufficient interoperability is ensured.