Pan-European circuit giant joins VPF roll-outLatest Analyst Commentary | All

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Published: 23 Apr 10

Kieft Group, owner of the Cinestar circuit brand in Germany, as well as other European territories including Switzerland and Croatia, has agreed a deal with XDC in order to roll out digital equipment under a VPF contract. Kieft & Kieft and its partner group will deploy a total of 150 digital screens across Germany, including some allocation to upgrade screens in Switzerland and Czech Republic, which covers approximately 21 per cent of its total 700 screen base. It is one of the leading pan-European operators.

Kieft Group had formerly worked with equipment integrator FTT (now part of the XDC group) in equipping select screens for 3D, which was an apparent motivator behind the decision to sign with XDC. The deal brings the number of screens contracted under XDC's VPF network to 1,180. Both Arts Alliance Media and Ymagis, XDC's closest competitors in the field, also have over 1,000 screens under contract to date.

 

Cinestar's move to digital, albeit for the time being a partial switch, follows in the footsteps of Europe's largest pan-regional operators including pan-European circuit UGC (which recently secured a full VPF deal through Ymagis) and Odeon UCI, which plans to upgrade its entire network through its own deployment entity, DDA. The deal also marks the first VPF deal for XDC (or any other third-party integrator) with a leading circuit in the German market . The situation is in contrast to neighbouring German-speaking territory Austria, where the two largest circuits have already signed VPF contracts for large or full digital deployment with XDC, namely Cineplexx and Hollywood Megaplex. The latter agreed to upgrade 40 screens only last month (March). Meanwhile, French integrator Ymagis has already upgraded a number of screens with independent exhibitors in Germany, but on a much smaller scale.

At year end 2009, Germany had upgraded 525 screens to digital in 329 cinemas, making it the third largest digital market in Europe. The relatively low average of 1.6 digital screens per site indicates a higher number of smaller or independent cinemas converting to digital, as well as fewer screens for the larger sites, outside of organised third party networks. This compares with France, where the average exceeds three digital screens per site. As a result, France actually had fewer digital sites converted than Germany in 2009, even though it now has over 1,000 screens equipped. This, in turn, reflects the progress of French multiplex circuit GCR which has already upgraded its entire 400 screen circuit to digital through a VPF deal with Arts Alliance Media. 3D has been the single largest catalyst of the digital screen roll out in Germany accounting for 80 per cent of digital screens, a higher penetration than in both UK and France.