NATO's CBG Selects AccessIT To Digitize 8,000 Screens

http://boxoffice.com/blogs/chad/2008/04/natos-cbg-selects-accessit-to-1.php

 

posted April 2, 2008 12:31 PM

 

Despite all the capital letters in the headline, it's the number that stands out.

 

The National Association of Theatre Owners' Cinema Buying Group has selected AccessIT to digitize more than 8,000 screens on behalf of its 600-plus independent exhibitors.

 

As NATO Vice President and General Counsel Kendrick Macdowell put it this morning, "If you are following digital cinema, you know this is a big deal."

 

“The strength of our industry," Macdowell said, "is in its diversity. We’ve got big circuits that do a fine job servicing our patrons, and we’ve got hundreds of small independents that do a fine job servicing our patrons, and there’s a role for each in this industry. And it was very important to us that the independents not be left behind in the digital transition.”

 

AccessIT Chairman and CEO Bud Mayo told Boxoffice that the digital integrator plans to incorporate a significant number of the independents into its previously announced Phase Two rollout of 10,000 screens starting this summer, and will likely get to the rest in a custom-tailored "Phase Two-and-a-Half."

 

Mayo said that AccessIT will be "sitting down with each one of those CBG members, both individually and collectively, with the folks from NATO at our side, to work through a deal and fit them into our Phase Two program where appropriate or into, in fact, a very distinct program for those theatres like sub-run houses and drive-ins and other categories that may not fit squarely into the model we created in Phase Two or previously in Phase One but still can be supported. And still can have an opportunity to work through it."

 

According to Mayo, CBG members will likely account for a significant percentage of those 10,000 Phase Two screens.

 

“I would say that there’s a good chance that at least half of them could be represented by CBG—hopefully more," he said. "They’re good, solid theatres—good operations and good locations—and we’re very interested in all of them.”