Current Issues in the Film Industry

1. Make a pie chart with a key showing the different
ways you consume movies…
Think about…
Cinema, Netflix, TV, Stream illegally, Torrent, Sky,
OnDemand, Youtube, DVD, VHS Casette etc…

2. How do you think institutions want you to
consume movies?
Think about how your pie chart might change!

3. Let’s recap. A definition for each of these…
• Produsers
• Fragmented audience
• Push/Pull Marketing
• Digital Distribution
• Piracy

5. • The Digital Audience mainly wants three things when it comes to
watching movies: they want them affordable, easy to use/consume,
and available how and when they want it.
• The Hobbit was the most pirated film in 2014 with 8.4 million
downloads (Torrent Freak)
• It's unclear how much of a dent movie piracy is making on box office
revenue - box office earnings were record-high in 2013 with nearly
$11 billion in revenue.
• Orange Wednesdays (example of synergy) allowing audience
members with orange broadband or mobile phones to get 2 for 1
tickets to the cinema on Wednesdays.

6. 432 million unique
internet users
explicitly sought
infringing content
during January 2013

7. The ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ and Megaupload
Problematic however – the internet is not static, data can be moved and
adjusted.
FindAnyFilm.com is a site where you can find films to watch legally –
whether on the web, bought from a retailer or at the cinema.
Netflix and LOVEFiLM (Which we will discover later)
Blinkbox – newer releases faster, a little more expensive. Part of Tesco.
“The television and movie community is working every day to develop new
and innovative ways to watch content online, and as the internet’s
gatekeepers, search engines share a responsibility to play a constructive
role in not directing audiences to illegitimate content,” - MPAA chairman
Chris Dodd.

8. Choose one of the following questions and create a
brainstorm in pairs to answer…
• Is piracy as big a threat to the film industry as they
suggest?
• Should we consider illegal downloads and file sharing as a
‘new’ form or distribution?
• Where do we go from here? What does the future hold in
terms of piracy and the film industry?

9. • Netflix has become increasingly popular in
English speaking countries, especially Canada,
where it is actively used by 20% of English
speaking households.
• Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said that ever
since Netflix launched in Canada 3 years ago,
BitTorrent is down 50%.

11. • LOVEFiLM has over 70,000 titles!
• You can still download even if you don’t have a rental
subscription to LOVEFiLM. Prices start from 79p and go up
to £1.99 for a feature length film.
• LOVEFiLM also offers a competitive DVD post rental
service.
• A full subscription costs £4.99 for unlimited access to
digital streaming.
• It operates a separate service LOVEFiLM Box Office where
you can digitally rent new and old movies for 48 hours via
a computer for the additional price of £2.49-£3.49 (much
like the service provided by Sky Box Office, iTunes or BT
Vision).

13. • Netflix has over 100,000 titles in its catalogue with a
large focus on TV shows from both the UK and USA.
• As of September 2013, Netflix reported global
streaming subscribers at 40.4 million (31.2 million in
U.S.).
• Critics have said what Netflix lacks in films is made up
in its sheer mass of TV content and high quality speed.
• It costs £5.99 per month for a subscription to digital
stream content.
• Content is available on multiple devices from the one
subscription fee.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puv1lS00ho0

14. 1. Who do you think the two companies are trying to appeal to?
2. Draw up the following table and write down positives and negatives for
digital content streaming sites
Positives (Netflix/LOVEFiLM) Negatives (Netflix/LOVEFiLM)

15. • More and more films are being released as a
‘simultaneous release’ meaning they get
released in theatres, on DVD/VOD and other
platforms on the same day or within a shorter
time frame (shrinking of the theatrical
window) than traditional release strategies,
which indicates that studios are seeing a
trend in media consumption.

16. The Road to Guantanamo Bay (2006)
The film premiered at the Berlin International
Film Festival on 14 February 2006.
It was broadcast to the UK on Channel
4 on 9 March, attracting 1.6 million
viewers and released on DVD and the
Internet the following day

17. The House of the Devil (2009)
It was made available through
VOD on October 1, 2009. The film was
given a limited theatrical release in the
On October 30, 2009.The DVD and
Blu-ray of the film were released on
February 2, 2010.A promotional copy
of the film was released on VHS in a
clamshell box like the ones that many
early VHS films of the 1980s came in.

18. Using the BFI site linked below, choose one film
you are interested in or have seen. Click on it’s
link for the case study. Read this document to
learn about it’s marketing and distribution
strategy. These case studies are incredibly
detailed and RELEVANT. An incredible resource.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/film-industry/lottery-funding-distribution/insight-reports-
case-studies-audience-research/new-ways-reaching-audiences-distribution