EUROPEAN VOD MEETINGS & VOD MARKET DAY
EUROPEAN VOD PLATFORMS SHARE EXPERIENCE OF STRONG GROWTH & AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT ACCELERATED BY COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN VENICE
EUROPEAN VOD MEETINGS
After 4 days of intensive training, the European VoD Meetings, the only training course especially conceived for the Video on Demand industry, wrapped up its 4th Workshop in Venice last Friday by showcasing the strong growth and rise in audience engagement the online platforms have experienced over the few months, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. 30 European VoD professionals representing 11 nationalities and 25 companies came together at the Venice Film Festival to participate in industry panels, case studies and workshops to brainstorm new opportunities for potential collaboration and partnerships. In addition, the trainees received insights from industry experts on how to access funding and business planning as well as communication and pitch coaching for their projects.
The European VoD Meetings were organized by EUROVOD, in partnership with the International Venice Film Festival and Venice Production Bridge. For the first time, professionals who cannot attend the training in Venice due to current travel restrictions are given the opportunity to access part of the sessions of the 4-day workshop through an online training package, accessible upon registration at the website: www.eurovod.org
VOD MARKET DAY : EUROVOD CONFERENCE & ONE-TO-ONE MEETINGS
On September 4th, EUROVOD and the International Venice Film Festival co-hosted, as part of 2020 edition of Venice Production Bridge programme, the 2nd edition of the VoD Market Day. The event took place at the Hotel Excelsior, Lido di Venezia, and was made available to stream globally at the Venice Production Bridge Live Channel. The presentations and panels from the day are still available to view online at: http://veniceproductionbridge.org/vpb-programme-2020/vpb-live-channel-english
The VoD Market Day kicked off the day with a presentation by Michael Gubbins from SampoMedia who conducted the first ever research into the European independent VoD sector for EUROVOD, downloadable on www.eurovodpro.org. In his 2020 research titled “DIVERSE, INDEPENDENT AND SUSTAINABLE: BUILDING EUROPEAN VOD”, Michael shed light on to the current state of play of the European VoD ecosystem and the impacts of the recent Covid-19 pandemic on the VoD industry by analysing market trends and patterns of audience engagement, especially through increased cooperation between the platforms, cinemas and festivals.
The EUROVOD research found that the lockdown has resulted in strong growth and rise in audience engagement in the sector, with platforms experiencing a 78% increase in traffic, 60% increase in transactions and saw an average growth of 270%. Michael concluded by highlighting that the lockdown had actually “exposed, accentuated and accelerated existing trends in the VoD industry”. During the lockdown, “the audience had time to explore and found real pleasure in discovery” and the independent platforms (50% of which all have over 1,000 films in their catalogues) played a key role in promoting cultural diversity and “connecting diverse content to diverse audiences.”
Followed a key note of Guy Bisson (Ampere Analysis), presenting an in-depth analysis of the 2020 VoD market worldwide and with a focus of European players, showing key trends and effects of the Covid pandemic on the online distribution sector.
The VoD Market Day Conference concluded with a panel discussion titled, “DEMAND CREATION: HOW TO ENGAGE A CHANGING AUDIENCE”. Michael continued on to moderate the panel which included the following VoD business leaders as invited speakers: Gianluca Guzzo (MyMovies CEO), Katharina Jeschke (IMZ Secretary General), Jaume Ripoll (Filmin Co-Founder) and Weerada Sucharitkul (FilmDoo CEO). Each of the platform demonstrated how Covid-19 had given them an opportunity to develop new partnerships which allowed them to expand beyond their key VoD activities into exciting, lucrative cross-industry collaborations, whether it be with film festivals, audio-visual organisations and even language learning institutions.
The afternoon of the VOD Market Day consisted of ONE-TO-ONE meetings with the 14 selected VoD platforms and services providers at Excelsior Hotel and online. Attendees of the Venice Production Bridge were able to book a meeting with industry professionals from the following companies: Ampere Analysis (UK), BECCA Europe (NL), EUROPA+ (US), EuroVoD, FilmDoo (UK), Filmin (ES), Huawei, IMZ (AT), Kinow (FR), Les Flicks (UK), Modern Films (UK), Polkatulk (FR), Premiere Digital (US), UsherU (UK), VoD Factory (FR).
Both European VoD Meeting participants and VoD Market Day attendees finished off the day with examples and insights of how VoD is no longer just an online film distribution tool, but plays a key role in the audiovisual sector, especially in light of recent events, to connect people around the world to diverse and enriching content while fostering impactful and fruitful cross-sector collaborations.
LAUNCH OF EUROVOD PRO
The VoD Market Day also saw the announcement of the launch of EUROVOD PRO. During the conference, Augustina Lumi presented EUROVOD PRO, the new online market and networking place dedicated to the Video on Demand sector, which received funding and support from the Creative Europe Media Programme. The EUROVOD PRO platform will be an online market, database and community to connect audiovisual professionals working in the VoD sector, to provide training ad job opportunities as well as to collect and disseminate data and research on the industry, connecting different players from the whole chia of rights, but also tech companies, consultants, marketing agencie. The aim will be to provide an environment to help VoD professionals find new business opportunities and partnerships, and to share resources and industry know-how on digital rights, subtitles, technology and financing opportunities.
The Beta version of the platform will be live from 12th October.
People who sign up ahead of the launch date will be able to enjoy the following benefits:
· Sign up for free and receive early-bird exclusive access to the platform
· Receive a discount code to use when the platform goes live
· Download a free copy of the 2020 EUROVOD Report on European VoD Services, with an in-depth analysis and the independent VoD sector and containing 6 case studies of how these upcoming VoD platforms took on Covid-19 and turned it into a business opportunity for all the value chain.
· Receive a free copy of the contact details and Digital Business Cards of EUROVOD members and participants of the 4th European VoD Meetings