Press Release Strasbourg, 13 January 2009 European digital screen base grew by 70% during 2007		Yearbook
		Volume 3 Film and home video
		MEDIA Salles

The European Audiovisual Observatory in co-operation with MEDIA Salles reports a total of 897 digital screens equipped with DLP Cinema and Sony 4K technology in Europe as of December 2007, 70% up from the previous year. This represents an estimated 3% of the entire European screen base and compares to 4 576 digital screens in the US where about 12% of all screens had been digitised by the end of 2007. In Europe, the United Kingdom, thanks to the UK Film Council’s Digital Screen Network initiative, took the lead in the digitisation process counting 284 digital screens, followed by Germany with 151. Together these two countries accounted for almost half of the entire digital screen base in Europe by the end of 2007.

This data is taken from the digital cinema chapter of the European Audiovisual Observatory’s 2008 Yearbook dedicated to the European Film and Home Video industries. For the first time in 2008 the data in this chapter were prepared in co-operation with MEDIA Salles.

The Yearbook provides key market data and analysis along the entire film value chain, from production, distribution and exhibition to DVD and VoD. It covers 36 European countries as well as the United States and Japan. A special chapter covers digital cinema allowing the industry to gain a global picture of what could turn out to be the most important development of cinema in recent years.

Highlights of this well-established publication include:

This year’s volume also includes two new features. The first concerns digital cinema, where the Yearbook provides for the first time a comprehensive list of digital screens by individual exhibitor for all of Europe. A second new feature is the implementation of a new methodology for measuring feature film production in Europe, aiming to distinguish clearly between fiction films and feature documentaries and thereby improving the comparability of production data across countries.

Journalists, please contact:
Alison Hindhaugh, Information and Press Officer, tel.: (00 33) (0) 3 90 21 60 10 - alison.hindhaugh@coe.int

For further information on the content of Volume 3, please contact Martin Kanzler, Analyst - Department for Information on Markets and Financing.

The European Audiovisual Observatory Set up in December 1992, the European Audiovisual Observatory's mission is to gather and distribute information on the audiovisual industry in Europe. The Observatory is a European public service body comprised of 37 member states and the European Union, represented by the European Commission. It operates within the legal framework of the Council of Europe and works alongside a number of partner and professional organisations from within the industry and with a network of correspondents. In addition to contributions to conferences, other major activities are the publication of a Yearbook, newsletters and reports, the compilation and management of databases and the provision of information through the Observatory’s Internet site (http://www.obs.coe.int).