WHO WILL ABSORB THEEXTRA SECONDS THAT DIGITALCONVERSION CREATES?

Source: SAWA

 

August 2008

 

Cinema is going Digital and the opportunity that Cinema Advertising rep-resents will continue to be transformed by this technical revolution..

 

WE KNOW THIS ALREADY SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?

As always, new technical opportunities rely on the existence and adoption of unified standards to give the quickest uptake, the lowest costs and thebest return on investment. Unifying standards helps to reduce both entry costs and running costs for any system.

 

OK – SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

Simply, that television frame rates (25 per second) are not the same as35mm or D Cinema film frame rates (24 per second) and do not look likelyto be so in the near future.35 mm and D cinema advertising opportunities centre on taking advertis-ing share from the established TV channels. To do this, the upfront cost nd knowledge barriers for using cinema advertising should be minimized Using the same picture for TV and both 35 mm/D cinema commercials reduces client confusion and minimises origination costs. Grand Central's Director of Sound Engineering, Raja Sehgal heads up manypan-European cinema campaigns.  Raja, along with the majority of sound design originating in the UK and parts of continental Europe, creates audio formatted for television commercials at 25 frames per second (fps). Tape to film conversion enables a commercial designed for TV to be played out at 35mm and D cinemas – it converts 25 fps to 24 fps. This results in a commercial being an extra frame per second longer by the time it reaches the cinema - a 60 second commercial from your local TV station played in35mm or D cinema at 24 frames per second becomes a 62.5 second com-mercial, 30 second pieces becoming 31.05 seconds and so on.

 

CHARGING STRUCTURE FOR THE MEDIUM:Some territories charge per second, so the necessary tape to film conversion process means each slot can cost the advertiser more, having a significant impact on the media costs for a campaign. Also, there is room for confusion - for the advertiser it's a 60 second commercial whilst for some cinema distributors it's a 62.5 second commercial. This is not an issue in the UK where a 60 second advertising slot is charge dat the same rate whether it is 60 seconds or 62.5 seconds. Many agencies, at some point, have had to choose whether to re-cut a 60second ad or find extra budget for distributors who charge strictly by the second. Pan-European campaigns such as Nike and Adidas will often have a specific cinema edit created at 24 fps therefore ensuring no extra mediacosts.To avoid this pain, Grand Central, London's premier post production sound studio for cinema and television advertising, thinks it is worth agreeing apan-European standardised method of charging for cinema advertising. Asan opener for discussion, we suggest that the charging structure for com-mercials in cinemas be round down to the nearest big number e.g. a 62.5is billed as a 60, a 31.05 is billed as a 30 etc. This simple fix would go a long way to remove any confusion and cost barriers when transferring TV commercials to 35mm & D cinemas, allowing cinema owners and distributors to concentrate on increasing the migration from other media forms to cinema and empowering sound houses like Grand Central to accurately advise their clients on whether a 24fps time specific edit is actually required to be done. s territories continue to convert from traditional E cinema to D cinema, will media slots for D cinema be sold in pre-determined 30, 60 and 90 sec-ond time slots or will an allowance be made for 30 seconds to become31.05, 60 becoming 62.5 etc ? We ask, because, as D cinema rolls out, it will no longer be a question of finding the extra budget for the extra 2.5seconds, if the 25 fps to 24 fps conversion has not been allowed for – the ads simply will not fit.UK D cinemas are already accommodating commercials at 24 fps without charging extra for ads that have undergone tape to film conversion – a working example of media buyers and distributors agreeing that '30 sec-onds' in reality allows for a piece up to 32 seconds, '60 seconds' covers anything up to 63 seconds etc.So that imaginative pan-European advertising remains part of the cinemagoers experience and a valuable income stream for distributors, Raja and the Grand Central team believe that right now might just be the ideal time to find an industry wide agreement that ensures equality of opportu-nity for all.

 

As Countries move to D Cinema the issue of conversion from the broadcast 25 to 24 frames will certainly cause some concern both for the ScreenAdvertising Companies and the Advertiser.  In the UK for example where many commercials are produced for Cinema, the problem is dormant due to the smaller number of Digital Screens and the way the medium is sold – ie not by the second.  However, this is not the case in many EuropeanCountries that sell the medium by the second and have a much higher penetration of Digital Screens. The additional media cost in most cases to date has been worn by the client – ie the Screen Advertising Companies has charged for the extra 2.5 seconds and there is now evidence of cam-paigns ear marked for Cinema having been withdrawn and put back into Broadcast schedules. The concern for our Industry is, as D Cinema contin-ues to grow at rapid rates in the US and solidly in Europe, revenue will be reduced and both the Screen Advertising Company and the Exhibitor will suffer in the long term. SAWA raises this issue so that we are prepared as a global business to consider whether the extra seconds created by con-version should be absorbed by the Exhibitor as the medium goes through this transition. There are rumours that DCI may eventually allow 25frames. Obviously, the easiest and best thing for Screen Advertising given most of our commercials are sourced from Broadcast, is to have the same frame rate as TV. However, this is not in the imminent future.  Maybe a course of action is for SAWA's Digital Sub Committee to address DCI and have our view heard.  In the interim, some countries have decided to negotiate with their exhibitors and not charge the Advertiser the extra seconds and this surely would be the better option so as to protect revenue streams and retain Advertisers who frequently use our Medium.