As revealed in this blog some time ago, Sony Pictures International (SPI) is the fourth Hollywood studio to sign up to Arts Alliance Media‘s European virtual print fee (VPF) based digital cinema deployment deal, that has so far found one cinema taker in France. The write up in the Hollywood Reporter is cagey on which territories will be part of this deal:

Under the agreement, SPRI has pledged to supply its films “to certain European countries” in digital format to AAM-deployed, DCI-compliant digital-cinema screens. Territories include “those in Western Europe,” SPRI said.

The releasing arm also has pledged “to make financial contributions in order to promote digital cinema.”

SPRI’s move comes after the November decision by French exhibition chain CGR Cinemas to sign with AAM to convert all its 400 screens to digital.

The tough studios to convince (WB and Disney) have still not given any indications that they will succumb to AAM’s VPF advances. It is to be expected that deals will be announced with some French distributors first. The Variety take doesn’t add much, apart from a gnomic pronouncement by Dodona.