European Union Pledges $5.6M to its Digital Distribution Market

France’s UniversCiné, Germany’s Europe’s Finest and Austria’s flimmit.com are among 13 European VoD platforms and DCD initiatives to benefit from the EU’s MEDIA Programme.

According to the European Commission, the main objective “is to support the creation and exploitation of catalogues of European works to be distributed digitally across borders to a wider audience and/or to cinema exhibitors through advanced distribution services, integrating where necessary digital security systems in order to protect online content.”

The largest sum - $981,000 (€ 750,000) – was awarded to the French VOD platform UniversCiné, which this year plans to extend its EuroVOD network of platforms to new territories such as the UK and Italy and focus on strengthening the strategic position of the project platforms in their respective markets as well as developing ‘multi-channel’ and ‘multi-device’ distribution.

Germany’s Europe’s Finest, which received $392,000 (€300,000) funding from MEDIA, currently has the largest collection of European film classics and current arthouse films for digital cinema.

There are plans to extend its catalogue and add a second pillar of activity by making the Reelport-owned service available as a platform for other distributors so that they can offer the films in digital form to the network of cinemas.

A start was made last year by launching Operation Kino films on Europe’s Finest and - together with new partner Hollywood Classics - the plan is to launch a joint venture “finest-classics” to provide a world-wide dimension to the offer.

Meanwhile, with $262,000 (€200,000) MEDIA backing, Austria’s flimmit.com now plans to evolve from a technical start-up to a full-service film distribution and marketing company to ensure that European films also benefit from economies of scale.

Other platforms supported in this funding round included the UK’s Curzon On Demand and Distrify’s transactional VoD platform MUVIES.COM, the first European SVOD service FILMOTV, and VoD platforms specifically dedicated to documentaries such as France’s medici.tv, the Netherlands’ DocsOnline, the Doc Alliance Films portal as a partnership between Visions du Réel Nyon, DOK Leipzig, Planete Doc Review Warsaw, CPH:DOX Copenhagen, IDFF Jihlava and FIDMarseille.