Sony Electronics, studios in digital cinema deals

Tag : electronics

News Corp 's Twentieth Century Fox, Viacom Inc 's Paramount Pictures, and Sony's Sony Pictures agreed to promoteSony's digital systems in theaters one day after five big studiosreached a separate deal with a theater chain group called theDigital Cinema Implementation Partners (DCIP) to upgrade 20,000screens in the U.S. and Canada.
Sony was not one of the studios involved in the deal by the DCIP,comprised of Regal Entertainment Group , Cinemark Holdings Inc and AMC Entertainment Inc, as the Japaneseelectronics maker attempts to get theaters to adopts its owndigital technology and integration services.
About 5,000 of the 37,000 cinema screens in the United States arenow digitally equipped and the ultimate aim is to transform all125,000 screens worldwide.
Mike Fidler, senior vice president of Sony's Digital CinemaSolutions and Services group, said Sony expects to deploy itsequipment on 9,000 screens in North America, Europe and Asia.
Fidler said Sony was in discussions with exhibitors and offeringthem everything from installation to maintenance, alternativeprograming, security and advertising.
Under its deal with the studios, Sony Pictures, Paramount and Foxwould pay virtual print fees when their films play on Sony digitalsystems. It would not disclose the fees, but sources familiar withthe matter said they typically range from about $800 to $1,000 permovie.
Sony is among a field of companies now seeking to become digitalcinema middlemen or integrators who secure financing via"virtual print fees" from studios to advance thedeployment of digital equipment in theaters.
Eastman Kodak reached a deal on Wednesday for Paramount to finance deployment ofits digital cinema technology, while Access Integrated Technologies has been a leading digital cinema integrator with commitments fromstudios to provide movies to up to 10,000 digital cinema systems inthe U.S. and Canada over the next three years.
Because of the large theater chains involved in the DCIP deal, DCIPbypassed the use of a middleman or integrator to cut its own dealswith studios.
Hollywood and exhibitors hope the digital conversion will boostattendance, cut down on printing and delivery costs and pave theway for more theaters to upgrade to 3-D, which commands premiumpricing.
Hollywood has a lot riding on the conversion since many of themplan to roll out 3-D films starting in 2009 and need enough 3-Dscreens to support their slates.
There are around 1,300 3-D screens in the United States, butanother 1,000 are expected by March 2009, analysts said.
(Reporting by Sue Zeidler)