22/07/2003

The Distribution & Exhibition Fund of the UK’s Film Council announced it was setting aside £13m (€18.4m) to equip 150 existing cinemas countrywide with up to 250 digital screens under the Digital Screen Network (DSN). Additional sums will be spent in creating digital prints.
The DSN is part of a Film Council scheme to give audiences a wider choice of films, especially art house, foreign language and specialist titles, many of which they would rarely see on the mainstream circuits. In 2002 there were just 125 digital screens worldwide, four of which in the UK.
The UK is Europe’s leading film consumer and cinema-going continues to increase steadily. The total UK box office for 2002 was £755m (€1.065.030m), a 17% increase on 2001 and up 176% since 1992.
Peter Buckingham, head of the D&E Fund said, "Specialised cinema can now react fully to the market and have the flexibility to grow a market alongside 35mm. This scheme is open to every exhibitor and distributor who is interested in growing, or is already working in, the specialised film sector."
Later this year, a call for tenders will be launched amongst the UK’s distributors and exhibitors to set up a central independent body to operate the DSN circuit and provide it with the necessary technology. DSN will be complementary to the existing 35mm projection system and will be of the same standard as that operating at the state-of-the-art Odeon Leicester Square. Training programmes are also planned.
If you are an exhibitor or distributor interested in finding out more about this important initiative, you are invited to contact:
Ian Thomson/Caroline Nagle
UK FILM COUNCIL Press Office
T: 44 (0)20 7861 7861
F: 44 (0)20 7861 7863
E: press@ukfilmcouncil.org.uk
www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk

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