This year will be a watershed year for digital distribution of movies in Europe using open internet video-on-demand (VOD) technology, according to a new report from Screen Digest.
The
Broadband Digital Movies report forecasts that the first signs of recognisable growth in the market will appear in 2006-2007, with total consumer spending on European movie downloading and streaming services accelerating to near €690 million by the end of 2010, compared to less than €10 million in 2005.
The growth will be driven by the arrival of mainstream movie content from major Hollywood studios, which Screen Digest says had been unwilling to explore online distribution in a meaningful way until 2005.
The report also says that online distribution will not only enable traditional pay-per-view (PPV) over the internet, but also business models such as digital retail, subscription VOD (SVOD) and free ad-driven movies.
A recent report from US researcher iSuppli the overall global VOD market will grow from below $2 billion in 2006 to nearly $13 billion in 2010 (see VOD Market To See Massive Growth).
In addition, it is expected that content delivery over centralised systems will continue to become more efficient with more solutions providers opting to deploy servers globally.
However, Screen Digest says that there is growing acknowledgement of p2p as a more cost-effective form of delivery for the platform.
Meanwhile, the report mentions how home media hubs such as Microsoft’s Home Media Centre and Apple’s Front Row will start to blur the boundaries between PC and TV, bringing with them further opportunities to watch downloaded content on TV sets.
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