New Cinemas - Changing Audiences

Dr Stephano Baschiera from QUB speaks about "Streaming European Cinema: Online Distribution and the Film Industry in Europe" at the IRCHSS 'New Ideas' Research Project Pilot Workshop, at New Cinemas- Changing Audiences, at UCC, March 10th 2012. He looks at streaming film distributors, particularly Netflix, and the home entertainment market. In particular he looks at Chris Anderson's idea of The Long Tail (2004) applied to Amazon and Netflix.

Often it is not blockbusters, but niche and unique films that are most often downloaded. The digital shift is recognised in MEDIA within the EU, simultaneously the move to streamed distribution is not as negatively regarded as a 'straight to DVD' distribution. There is room for innovation and for small budget films.

Key issues raised:

European cinema is still considered as art cinema -

Geoblocking creates an IP nation, ISP services and national legislation all intervene in terms of publication and access... it seems to me that just as with text, the SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA type legislation seeks to create borders where, say in terms of radio, there are none. This aspect equally affects text.

The power of corporations, especially Hollywood is still significant - they need to grow and Europe is another market.

Social Media too - with merchandising as an end - is in development, using say Facebook, as well as Foursquare, using customer data to push other media and merchandise.

The idea of how publication and distribution happens is equally important for a variety of media - it is interesting to see how theories, and texts central to this discussion are also central to an understanding of how book publication has changed. Paramount is producing Ultra Violet. The Dark Night App is available free - where interactivity with the film is provided at an entry level, the customer then buys other content (also the film Inception is available) to populate the app.