Tag Archives: Arts Alliance Media

Arts Alliance Rethinks Its Alternative Content Strategy

January 9, 2012

How hard is it to find success with alternative content? The answer is; very. So many variables have to fall perfectly in place to find success, much less profit. No matter whether it’s sports, concerts or cultural events, there are rights clearances to obtain, theaters to secure and screenings to promote. None of this is easy, though there are a number of companies that have managed to make a name for themselves in alt. content by routinely producing high profile events including, Arts Alliance Media (AAM), Cinedigm and Fathom Events.

So imagine my surprise when in late November I started to receive emails and phone calls informing me that AAM was getting out of the alt. content business. How could this possibly be? After all, I had just interviewed Elizabeth Draper, who heads up AAM’s alt. content efforts, for a story on marketing such events in Boxoffice Magazine.

Rather than contribute to the rumor mill by posting such news with third party confirmation, I figured it would be best to go straight to the source by getting in touch with Howard Kiedaisch, AAM’s CEO. His email response sums up rather nicely not only AAM’s approach to alt. content, but also the company as a whole:

“Over the last three years AAM have released over 60 alternative content titles. Some have been very successful for our content and exhibition partners but in many cases have left little net contribution for AAM. Meanwhile, AAM’s VPF rollout business continues to grow nicely while our software has become a tremendous success with our recent deals. In looking at what to do going forward on the AC side, we have been reviewing our business model including both the revenue opportunity and the overhead requirements. Through that review we found it necessary to reduce the permanent staffing of the AC department at this time.

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Cinema Digitaal Selects Arts Alliance Media For Netherlands D-Cinema Rollout

By J. Sperling Reich

April 13, 2011

Cinema Digitaal, the organization overseeing the rollout of digital cinema in the Netherlands, has selected Arts Alliance Media to as their integrator to convert more than 500 screens throughout the country to digital.

Under the exclusive arrangement AAM will install and maintain digital cinema equipment and technology in a wide range of cinemas encompassing large exhibition chains and smaller art house venues. Circuits not participating in the rollout include Pathe, Euroscoop and Utopolis, as they will be handling their own conversions.

AAM will also provide their VPF deals with five Hollywood studios and is in the process of finalizing similar deals with the 14 local distributors that make up the NVF.

Cinema Digitaal was founded by the Dutch Association of Cinema Operators (Nederlandse Vereniging van Bioscoopexploitanten, NVB), the Dutch Film Distributors’ Association (Nederlandse Vereniging van Filmdistributeurs, NVF) and the EYE Film Institute. The Dutch government is funding 14 percent of the project with additional funds coming from the Netherlands Film Fund (Nederlands Fonds voor de Film) and bank financing.

With no VPF deals of their own, Cinema Digitaal needed to partner with an entity that had such agreements covering the Netherlands. Thus, it was really a choice between AAM, XDC and Ymagis.

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Odeon Selects Unique Digital’s Platform For Digital Rollout

By J. Sperling Reich

December 3, 2010

Odeon + Unique.jpg

Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group took another step forward in their digital cinema rollout this week by announcing their selection of Unique Digital’s software suite to help them manage digital content and equipment in converted theatres.

With 1,802 screens spread across 202 venues in seven countries, Odeon is Europe’s largest cinema circuit. They are so large in fact, that Odeon struck their own virtual print fee (VPF) agreements with Hollywood studios. Rather than rely on a deployment entity such as Arts Alliance Media or XDC, Odeon is handling the rollout all on their own.

However, it wouldn’t make much sense for Odeon to build their own digital cinema management software. That’s where Unique Digital comes in. [Full Disclosure: I have ongoing business dealings with Unique]. Odeon has selected to deploy Unique’s Rosetta Bridge, a theatre management system (TMS) and Cinema Accord, a back office system focused on managing digital content, keys and VPF agreements.

Based in London, and with offices in Dublin, Ireland and Bergen, Norway, Unique is one of Europe’s leading providers of software and network solutions that give motion picture exhibitors the ability to manage and support their cinema operations, including all content and equipment. In February, Unique was selected by Norway’s Film & Kino to help convert 90% of the country’s movie screens to digital.

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MTV Bringing Green Day Concert To European Cinemas

By J. Sperling Reich

October 28, 2010

MTV is partnering with Cinema Events and Arts Alliance Media (AAM) to bring their popular concert series “World Stage” to movie theatres throughout Europe. The first screening will feature the award winning rock band Green Day performing a show from their recent 21st Century Breakdown tour.

Fans of Green Day will be able to see the concert in 150 theatres across 14 European countries starting on November 15th in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Serbia and the United Kingdom. France and Spain will screen the concert on November 25th and December 2nd respectively. Additional theatres and countries may be added as the screening date nears.

The 80-minute concert was filmed by MTV at the Olympia Halle in Munich, Germany in November 2009 and will be shown in cinemas with high-definition and surround sound. Tickets can be purchased at http://greenday.mtv.com.

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AAM Topper Howard Kiedasch Discuss TMS Deal With Hoyts

By J. Sperling Reich

August 30, 2010

It’s that time of year in the Northern Hemisphere where everyone wanders off on vacation at the end of summer. It’s very easy to let an important piece of news slip by without digesting it properly. So, I wanted to take a moment to highlight the announcement made early last week that Hoyts Cinemas had chosen deploy Arts Alliance Media‘s (AAM) Theatre Management System across their 400 screens in Australia and New Zealand.

It would be incredibly easy to brush the news off as just another press release from a digital cinema vendor. After all AAM has developed a TMS for the deployments it is undertaking in Europe. It’s not as if they have to build it from scratch. I’d argue however that it’s a bit more meaningful because Adam Wrightson was a part of the decision making process at Hoyts.

Wrightson is Hoyts, Group Technology Director and anyone that knows him, or has ever worked with him, knows how thorough he is when it comes to the technology the chain chooses to install. Presently he is working with Digital Cinema Implementation Partners Australia (DCIPA) to roll out digital cinema throughout Hoyts.

Any system or software developer that wants to do business with Hoyts has to get past Wrightson’s wary eye which is no easy task. After all, Wrightson is the kind of guy that can judiciously put together a detailed technical requirements document that leaves few if any engineering questions unanswered. A few years ago Wrightson sent me a specification document he wrote for a digital advertising network which came in at a mere 80 pages and had more color figures and diagrams than a world atlas. Getting a nod from Wrightson may as well be the digital cinema equivalent of being knighted.

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Screen Digest’s David Hancock Discusses Europe’s D-Cinema Funding Shortfall

By J. Sperling Reich

July 7, 2010

Europe's Digital Shortfall (Courtesy Screen Digest)

On June 21st, just in time for Cinema Expo, Screen Digest published a report titled “Digital Cinema Moves Into The Mainstream“. Twelve pages in length and with 10 tables and charts, the report uncovered a significant “digital shortfall” in the amount of financing required to convert all of Europe’s screens to digital. David Hancock, a senior analyst at Screen Digest, authored the report and we asked him to shed some light on its key findings. (The interview appears after the jump).

Details From The Report
Not counting Russia there are roughly 32,600 screens throughout Europe for which a digital rollout will cost EUR €2.1 billion (or USD $2.65 billion). Of those screens 23,800 are covered for digital conversion through virtual print fees offered by Hollywood studios. Upwards of 5,000 screens will be handled directly by theatre owners themselves. Theoretically that means there is funding of EUR €1.65 billion (or USD $2.1 billion) for d-cinema conversions, leaving a gap of EUR €450 million (or USD $568.4 million) to cover all Europe’s screens.

And who is being left out of the funding equation? Well, it’s mostly art houses, seasonal theatres, repertory venues and mobile cinemas.

The United Kingdom and The Netherlands have set up special funding groups to help solve this problem. Support funds have also been established in such countries as the Czech Republic, Finalnd, France, Germany, and Sweden. On region in Poland plans to pull money out of a tourism fund and Italy is giving tax credits to any theatre which converts. The European Union is offering assistance through its MEDIA Programme.

Driven mostly by 3D content, the number of European screens equipped for d-cinema at the end of the first quarter in 2010 had risen 16% over 2009 to 5,333, or a full 15% of the region’s screens. Presently 75% of all digital screens in Europe are 3D capabe. Thanks to competition among France’s largest exhibitors, the country leads the 3D screen count with more than 700. The U.K. and Germany are second and third hovering around the 500 screen mark.

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Posted in Digital Cinema

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Cinema Expo Thoughts: Howard Kiedaisch of Arts Alliance Media

By J. Sperling Reich

July 2, 2010

Not being able to attend Cinema Expo last week was very disappointing since it is one of my favorite conferences each year. The annual trade show held in Amsterdam is always a great opportunity to catch up with exhibitors and distributors from all over the world, especially Europe.

Rather than try to cover Cinema Expo from a desk in Los Angeles, I turned to some of the leading players working in the space today, all of whom were in attendance at the show in Amsterdam. Over the next week I’ll be posting their thoughts for everyone to read in comment on.

Today, we’ll start with Howard Kiedaisch of Arts Alliance Media:

Howard Kiedasch of Arts Alliance Media

For AAM, this year’s CinemaExpo marked a significant change in our business.

The tide started to change at Showest and was flowing in our direction at Cannes but it was Cinema Expo where we really felt the current, heavily pushing digital cinema. The added benefit of a robust cinema market (in no small part due to digital), helps drive the digital cinema conversion even faster.

It has become clear that every exhibitor of any size (50+ screens) will have found a solution to full digital rollout before the end of the year. Though in the past there were concerns about the technology, the business model or the financing, the latest (and really only remaining) issue on everyone’s lips at Cinema Expo was the availability of machines. With the dramatic increase in demand, manufacturers are unable to deliver all the supply the market wants.

Fortunately, we ordered over 1,000 machines three months ago and have ample product for our customers’ needs. The number of deals in the pipeline also took a huge leap forward at Cinema Expo causing us to order nearly 2,000 projectors for 2011 before the end of the show. After 5 years of hard labor, it’s tremendously exciting to see an industry hit an inflection point and to be part of the transition. Clearly there are some exciting times ahead.

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Ymagis Experiences Growth Spurt In Deals With UGC, Utopia and OCine

By J. Sperling Reich

June 20, 2010

In the past few weeks Ymagis, like their European counterpart Arts Alliance Media, has announced a number of new deals with exhibitors. What better time to review them all than on the eve of Cinema Expo, which begins tomorrow in Amsterdam.

For anyone who may need a brief refresher on who Ymagis is, they are a European digital cinema integrator and deployment entity of sorts. Based in Paris, France, they differentiate themselves from other European integrators by focusing on the management and administration of virtual print fees (VPF) being paid by distributors rather than on the financing and installation of digital cinema equipment.

This is not to say Ymagis doesn’t arrange for financing and deploy d-cinema systems in theatres. They most certainly do. In fact, Ymagis arranged the financing for the deal they announced on May 11th with the French based theatre chain UGC. The announcement was really a formality since Ymagis began converting UGC’s nearly 600 screens in March of this year. UGC operates 36 theatres in France, three in Belgium, four venues in Italy and another six in Spain. Attendance at UGC’s theatres throughout Europe tops out at more than 40 million.

The deal is one of the more important ones Ymagis has landed, not only because its with one of France’s largest theatre operators, but also because they arranged financing for the conversion through Banque Populaire Group, LCL-Crédit Agricole and Banque Palatine.

Reached via email, Ymagis chief executive officer and founder Jean Mizrahi detailed the unique way his company works with exhibitors:

“We have a flexible model. In some cases, exhibitors prefer to finance the equipment themselves. In other cases, they want us to take care of it. Right now among the 1400 screens we have signed throughout Europe, half of them have chosen to self finance, the second half we’re financing. We receive the VPFs and though the exhibitors do not know how much we receive from the distributors, we redistribute the largest portion of this revenue directly to them.

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Arts Alliance Lands Cineworld and €50 Million Funding

By J. Sperling Reich

June 14, 2010

With the start of Cinema Expo International only a week away Arts Alliance Media wasted no time in throwing down the gauntlet for major announcements at this year’s event. Earlier today AAM, one of Europe’s leading digital cinema deployment entities, made public two important deals they have undoubtedly been working on for some time.

The first bit of news was that AAM has entered into an agreement with Cineworld Cinemas, the second largest movie theatre chain in Europe, to convert 100% of their circuit to digital. That’s 790 screens at 77 venues throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. And the kicker is Cineworld will finance the entire digital cinema conversion with their own cash and financing with a schedule that will see the project completed in the next three years.

That news alone would have been worth its own press release, but on top of that AAM announce they had closed on EUR €50 million (USD $61 million) in financing with Sankaty Advisors. AAM will use the money to fund the digitization of 1,000 screens for exhibitors they’ve previously entered into agreements with. AAM already has 700 screens deployed with an additional 2,300 in the pipeline.

So let’s take a step back and examine each of these announcements in more detail starting with Cineworld.

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Norway Set To Convert All Of Its Cinemas To Digital

By J. Sperling Reich

June 24, 2009

norway_flag Norway’s FILM & KINO has announced that it has signed virtual print fee (VPF) agreements with five out of six studios (discussions with Sony Pictures still on-going), thus paving the way to make it the first country to switch over all of its cinemas to digital in a government-led effort. Announcement in Norwegian here and press release in English here. From the latter:

Film & Kino, the Norwegian interest organization for cinemas, announces the world’s first non-commercial complete national digital roll out with agreements with Twentieth Century Fox, United International Pictures (the local distributor for Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures in Norway), Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International, and Warner Bros. Pictures International.

Film & Kino has served the Norwegian cinema industry for over 90 years, and is proud to announce multiple studio agreements in Norway. This complete digital roll-out will transform all of Norway’s cinemas, big and small, to modern DCI-compliant digital cinema houses. The roll-out will start in late 2009 after the completion of public tenders for the procurement of equipment and services required for the digitization process. Read More »

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