A lot has changed since our last newsletter... The COVID-19 crisis had a major impact on our lives and in the cultural and creative sectors. We would like to express our solidarity to those who have been directly impacted by the virus, personally and professionally, especially the most fragile. As a consequence of the restrictive measures taken by governmental institutions to contain the spread of the virus, it is with much regret that we had to cancel our second workshop of the European VoD Meetings, which should have taken place in Sofia, Bulgaria, from March 18th to 21st, during the Sofia International Film festival and Sofia Meetings. We would like to take this occasion to thank all the partners, experts and participants for their support and understanding for this inevitable situation. Particularly, we would to like to thank the Sofia IFF and Sofia Meetings for their crucial help in the organisation of our training, but also bring our support to the team after the cancellation of their events. But life and arts go on, and find new ways of adapting to challenging times. Here below you'll find a list of initiatives taken by some of the European VoD platforms members of EuroVoD in order to make your time at home lighter and more meaningful. We'll update regularly these initiatives on our website and socials. Please stay safe and take care, EuroVoD Team
ACTIONS & OFFERS FROM EUROVOD PLATFORMS
Our members are working hard at the moment to adapt and take relevant actions to bring cinema, culture and entertainment into public's homes, in this global context of COVID-19 restrictive measures. Member platforms are working (remotely) to set up new offers and support partners and rights holders in the audiovisual sector, institutional and educational organisations, as well as their regular audience. Here are a number of the new actions and offers made available by some EuroVoD members' services: FILMDOO Rent a film for free from the whole catalogue: use the code TOGETHERWITHFILM at check out to watch the film for free. Territories available: worldwide FILMOTV The platform offers a permanent promotion on a selection of TVOD movies and specific promotions, such as a promo campaign (current titles starting 1,99€). The SVOD service offers a one month free trial. New actions are initiated on social media with videos by journalists with a recommendations, called "Carte postale de...". E-cinema releases will be available as soon as the regulatory context is defined and confirmed for premium movies that couldn't benefit from a full exploitation on theaters. Territories available: France KINO FONDAS The platform is one of the hosts of Vilnius films festival, Kino Pavasaris, which has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival moved online, making it the first online film festival online in Lithuania. Territories available: Lithuania KINO PASAKA IFF Kino Pavasaris's selection will be available on the platform for 3 weeks, as well as other the platforms in the country. Territories available: Lithuania LACINETEK.DE All TVOD and EST films available on Lacinetek.de get a 50% discount. Territories available: Germany, Austria MEDICI.TV Stream Massenet’s Manon from the Opéra de Paris for free. In April, for each performance that were on the schedule to be live streamed, a program from the catalog featuring those same artists will be available to everyone for free. Read their full statement here. Territories available: worldwide NOK-ZE-DOC One-month free subscription of the service by entering the code NOKNOKNOK Territories available: French-speaking territories PICKBOX NOW Pickbox NOW unlocked its service for free in the Adriatic region from March 13 and this promotion is active until the current situation remains. Territories available: Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia and North Macedonia. TËNK Tënk has teamed up with a long-time partner festival "Cinéma du réel" in Paris which was meant to take place in March: for two weeks, their 2020 edition is on Tënk with most of the selected films, which are recent, rare and high quality. Each film is online for a week and with a limited number of screenings. They are in discussion with European festivals to build similar partnerships. Territories available: Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland TRIART FILM Starting March 20th, every new member is offered a free rental to watch on the site. Territories available: Sweden UNIVERSCINÉ BELGIUM & LUXEMBOURG Cinema@home on universcine.be presents 30 e-cinema releases and it will be duplicated for the Luxemburg market on VOD.lu in agreement with right-holders. Cinemabelgealamaison hosts 1000 Belgian films on TVOD and more than 200 n SVOD through UnCut, organized by Centre du Cinéma and Ministre de la Culture de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles Bénédicte Linard. Starting March 30, vod.lu will host the films selected for LuxFilmFest 2020, which was cancelled this month. Territories available: Belgium, Luxembourg UNIVERSCINÉ FRANCE Promo campaign called Univers Solidaire with 300 films at 0,99€, which was covered the press. The editorial team came up with a dedicated film selection, "Confinement de chefs d'oeuvre", as well as a selection for kids in partnership with Little KMBO at a 50% discount. The platform hosts Fête du Court Métrage with 3 free shorts, as well as the AFCA festival with a pass. Universciné is partnering with SDI (independent distributors) to host a corner for the syndicate's members as an alternative for their work. Territories available: France Other member platforms are working at the moment on taking actions and setting up new offers by working closely with rights holders and institutions, such as Vodclub.online in Austria, Lacinetek.com en France and more actions for KinoFondas in Lithuania.
NEW EUROVOD MEMBER
MEDICI.TV
Good news in these challenging times: we wish a warm welcome to medici.tv as new EuroVoD Core Member! Medici.tv is a leading classical music and live events channel, operating worldwide since 2008.
USEFUL READINGS AND WEBINARS
EFAD: Measures taken to mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak
National Film & Audiovisual Funds across Europe are mobilised to take necessary measures to mitigate the consequences for everybody working in the sector. They are reorganising their internal functioning and procedures in order to continue to operate and award support, adjusting existing schemes to introduce more flexibility or creating specific ones to address the current difficulties. Here is a summary by country.
European Audiovisual Observatory reports
AI in the Audiovisual Industry: The AI workshop aimed at setting the scene,with an overview of the different fields of application of AI in the media sector, and addressed the potential impact of AI on news production and distribution. You can download the full summary here. production You can also download the report on the Visibility of AV works on TVOD, which finds that 24% of films promoted by TVOD services are European.
MAVISE Database Tutorial
The European Audiovisual Observatory also completed a useful and clear short video tutorial on our MAVISE Database on TV channels, on-demand services and licences in Europe. Watch it here.
Nostradamus Report: A Creative Explosion 2020
Göteborg Film Festival published their report, which aims to sketch out the future of the screen industries 3–5 years from now, through interviews with industry experts and research. You can download it online.
CineRegio Report
Green Report 2020: You can download the 4th Edition of the CineRegio Green Report which provide an overview on environmentally friendly efforts and practices taken by 15 regional film funds. Find it here.
Free Webinar: Benefiting from fragmentation & frustration in the video industry
Dataxis co-hosted a free webinar with Mirada exploring the origins of the upcoming AVoD influx, the causes and cures for subscriber fatigue, how to fill the leanback experience gap, and creating a universal experience. You can watch it online.