Report: 30 Percent of World’s Cinema Screens to be Digitized by 2010

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The latest report from media analysts Screen Digest claims that Europe has reached a tipping point for digital cinema development and is ready for a wide-scale roll-out.

There are signs that commercial progress is faster in the U.K. than elsewhere, and this is underlined by beta-tests carried out by Odeon and Empire Cinemas, according to the study, ‘Digital Cinema: Global and European Roll-out, Business Models and Forecasts to 2012.’

The report predicts that over three-quarters of the U.K. market will be digitized by 2012. Odeon recently stated intention to install 500 digital 3D screens once their deployment is underway.

In France, which has been lagging behind, Circuit Georges Raymond (400 screens) is the first exhibitor to join Arts Alliance’s VPF-funded European roll-out. This will serve to focus the industry on the issue and to change the framework of the debate, the study claims.

In Germany, the government is aiming to build a consensus on deployment and is exploring business models for the conversion. Germany has the highest number of commercial digital screens in Europe (132). Norway has chosen to study and undertake a fully managed consensual digital transition, and says the whole market will be converted by 2010.

Globally, there are 5,500 high-end digital cinemas at the end of 2007 (5.5 percent of global modern screens), up from 2,996 last year, with 78 percent of those in the U.S. The report forecasts that 30 per cent of the world’s modern screens will be digitized by 2010.