1.

Reliance MediaWorks (formerly Adlabs), one of Indias largest entertainment services companies announced a strategic alliance with UFO Moviez, a company billed as the worlds largest digital cinema network 2.Real Image is another company offering digital mastering in India, handling both d-cinema and e-cinema to support the sale of its servers for both markets. 3.The first was a reseller partnership arrangement with Real Image in India, a country presently experiencing high growth in new multiplex openings. Real Image may be familiar to some as the company behind Qube Cinema. Barco will provide training, service and customer support to Real Image in a deal that should help the projector manufacturer strengthen marketing efforts and increase its install base throughout the territory. Real Image will be able to offer Barcos entire digital cinema product line to their customers, a necessity in a country where cinemas range from small single screen complexes in remote geographical areas to state-of-the-art venues in large urban areas. Arvind Rangnathan, Chief Executive Officer of Chennai based Real Image pointed this out in the press

release announcing the partnership 4. Indian e-cinema operator InterWorld Digital has raised $10m from institutional investors to expand its network. From BoC, Interworld Digital has identified 300 theatres in the Mumbai circuit to bring them into its digital cinema network. The company would require approximately Rs 450 million (Rs 45 crores) to digitise these 300 theatres.During the last one year, Interworld Digital has digitised 52 theatres in the Mumbai circuit like Eros, New Empire, Paradise and Jaya amongst others. A total investment of approximately Rs 12 15 lakhs is required to upgrade each theatre. At $24-30,000 per theatre this is most likely not going to be 2K, but India is already ho,e to the worlds largest e-cinema networks, so it doesnt really need Hollywood; 5. Indias BIG Cinemas will be the first* in the country to screen operas in digital on the big screen. FromET, BIG Cinemas, an R-ADAG company, has forged an alliance with Londonbased More2Screen to bring Italian operas to Indian cinemas. Big has entered into a revenuesharing arrangement with More2Screen, which will involve screening two operas and a concert. According to Tushar Dhingra, COO, Big Cinemas, the objective has been to provide distinct content. Opera in cinemas have been a great success in US, Europe and Japan, but India with its very different musical heritage will be an interesting test, not to say trial by fire. Full disclosure: I was involved in setting this event up;

Barco introduces next-generation, large-format digital cinema package, merging the only DCIcompliant Enhanced 4K DLP Cinema projector with the industry's best multi-dimensional audio system
6.
Continuing its long tradition of technology leadership, Barco is revolutionizing the giant screen film industry with the introduction of its new, premium-quality turnkey projection system which offers exhibitors a more affordable, higher quality solution for large-format movie presentation. The new system combines Barco's industry-leading 4K projectors with Barco's exclusive audio system. This audio solution enhances a typical 5.1 installation to 11.1, and creates a one-of-akind immersive cinema experience.

7.AAM TO SUPPLY ODEON UCI WITH THEATRE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN GERMANY, AUSTRIA & ITALY

8.UFO Moviez India Limited distributes films in a pay per show business model in India. It offers digital cinema solutions that allow users to receive movies via a satellite. The companys digital cinema system delivers motion pictures, trailers, advertisements, and other audio/visual programs to theatres. It serves film distributors and cinema owners. UFO Moviez India Limited has a strategic business alliance with Reliance Mediaworks Ltd. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Mumbai, India. UFO Moviez India Limited operates as a subsidiary of Apollo International Limited.

9.The Journey of 15 Successful Years of Experience! Interworld Incorporated in 1995, Interworld has become nationally recognized as India's first listed company successfully digitizing Cinema theaters in India.. During last 15 years, Interworld sailed through tough waters and it is perfect saying "Calm seas never make skillful sailors." Our long-term vision is to remain India' most premium and most preferred Digital Entertainment, media and communication Company. To achieve this vision, we

continue to provide the highest digital cinema standards at our network cinemas besides increasing the number of cinemas under operation on a Mumbai film circuit basis in first phase. We further look forward to bringing allied retail entertainment, media and communication concepts to India to complement and complete the digital experience for our patrons and followers. India's first listed DIGITAL CINEMA Company.

10. The Indian film industry is estimated to grow to US$ 3 billion by 2014 as digital technologies deploy.

Market Information
Digital technologies have revolutionized content creation and delivery around the globe. Nowhere is this more evident than in India, now engaged in a massive digital transition from acquisition through distribution. Cinema India Expo, the leading trade show and conference for digital cinema, puts top quality information and products in front of key players of the digital cinema industry who are engaged in the transition. Bollywoods influence is growing globally and the industry is booming locally. The Indian film industry is estimated to grow to US$ 3 billion by 2014 as digital technologies deploy. Cinema India Expo presents an exceptional opportunity to bring together an international roster of top companies with the leaders of Indian Digital Cinema for face to face interaction and information sharing. Createasphere, presenting top exhibitions and conferences since 2001, has partnered with Cinema India Expo to present a truly international offering of experts, companies, conference offerings and buyers.

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Bharti Airtel has entered the digital media distribution business, establishing what

theyre calling a digital media exchange. The exchange will enable the transference of digital content from media houses, producers and distributors to multiple platforms and locations, including Live Media (digital signages), mobile, Internet and other platforms. Distribution will also get a boost if Airtel succeeds in acquiring 3G and WiMax spectrum. Speaking at the launch, Airtel CEO (India & South Asia) Sanjay Kapoor said that this is a long term play, and company expects that in about 4-5 year time, this will be anywhere between Rs. 300-400 crores business. This is a large media exchange, agnostic to which screen, and which part of the screen youre talking about, he said, adding that Were not trying to control here. Were the enablers, the platform. The timing of the content, and what is going to be sent to each screen is going to be controlled by the producer. Anyone can create content and piggyback on the exchange, he said.

To Start With B2B, Digital Cinema

Airtel is going to begin with a B2B focus, and the low hanging fruit in this space is evidently the B2B digital cinema distribution which has been attempted previously, but clearly not at this scale. There are more than 16,000 cinema screens operating in India, and theyve being digitized. Serving content digitally is a great opportunity starting from B2B and then moving to B2C, Rajan Swaroop, Executive Director (Enterprise Services) for Airtel said.

Swaroop said that they see the B2C space more opening up in the 12-18 months. How do we reach a film in 15 languages across 2000-5000 theatres? With a platform like this, were in a position to get the processing and convert to a regional format in no time, and reach these theaters almost instantly. The potential for the content owners becomes multi-fold. As partners Airtel is targeting publishers, processors, animation companies, gaming companies, advertising and media houses.
Viability? Previous Attempts At Digital Cinema Distribution Struggled

However, the digital cinema distribution business hasnt exactly flourished in India over the past two years: Pyramid Saimira has shuttered their digital cinema distribution business. UFO Moviez and Adlabs currently have digital cinema distribution businesses. Swaroop said that they will partner with the likes of UFO Moviez and Adlabs. Where Airtel has an advantage is that while the other companies lease bandwidth for distribution, Airtel actually owns it. Airtel is also also looking to leverage their global pipes for international distribution. On the viability of the business model, Kapoor said that the whole business case is in juicing our existing assets. For us, its incremental investment. The reach that we have cannot be paralleled by local companies; were uniquely poised. In this context, MediaNama readers might remember that just last month, Airtel had announced an agreement with Limelight Networks for content delivery network, which will allow the company to efficiently leverage content delivery in India and internationally.

12.Having revived both cinema advertising as well as single-screen theatres, digital cinema is transforming the economics of the film business in India. Take a deep breath, relax. That is what the two leading digital cinema companies in India should be doing. At over 5,600 screens in all, Real Image and UFO Moviez have digitised more than half the total single screen market in India. Both are making operating profits and Real Image has actually broken even. Why then are they still ramping up at a breathless pace?

Because size does matterfor both these companies and for the Rs 14,000 crore Indian film industry. It is size that will determine the leader in the worlds largest film-producing and ticketbuying but least profitable country. The total revenues of the film business have more than doubled in the six years since the first major digital cinema roll-out began in 2005. Of these, box-office revenues have grown fastest thanks to multiplexes and digital single screens. The latter now bring in more than half of the total box-office revenues. Yet, for digital cinema to fully realise its potential, it has to prove to advertisers that, Cinema is no longer a fringe medium, as Arvind Ranganathan, CEO, Real Image puts it. Digital cinema has been making headway. Across the country, advertisers such as Hindustan Unilever and Ranbaxy are beginning to use digitised single screens to reach under-penetrated small town India or clusters of difficult-to-reach audiences. These could be lower income groups in large cities or the well-heeled movie going audiences in a Raipur or Coimbatore. As a result by March 2011, advertisers had spent about Rs 50 crore on the networks both these companies have. That is about 40 per cent of all the money spent on cinema advertising. Getting that to Rs 400-500 crore is what will change the nature of the game reckons one investor. The first digital cinema roll out in India began in 2003. Mukta-Adlabs, a joint venture between Subhash Ghais Mukta Arts and Manmohan Shettys Adlabs (now part of Reliance) seeded more than 50 theatres with Rs 10 lakh worth of equipment in each. This was primarily a server and a projector, the two key pieces of hardware. This was done in exchange for advertising rights, revenue share or a flat fee. The whole project fizzled out albeit after revealing the promise of digital cinema. In 2005, Real Image and later UFO (then Valuable Media) entered the fray and it wasnt The first 100 theatres were an uphill task, remembers Kapil Agarwal, joint managing director, UFO Moviez. Nobody wanted to pay for or use digital equipment. Soon, they were clamouring for it. The simultaneous release factor alone has pushed up occupancies across moribund single screen theatres by 50-60 per cent and ticket prices by 25-50 per cent. More importantly, it has brought small town India and clusters of metro-India, where a bulk of the single screens are now operational and back in the reckoning. This is evident in the kind of films being made. Five years ago, thanks to a metro-multiplex skew, the mass film had almost died. Now it is back with a bang with Dabangg, Bodyguard and others doing roaring business. Cinema lures ads again To take digital growth and revenues to the next level, advertising revenues are critical. Getting these, however, is not very simple. Cinema is popular in India, but for advertisers, television has been king. Soon however, because of multiplexes, advertisers started looking at cinema again. But all put together, there are just over 1,000 multiplex screens, most of them in big-town India. The sheer reach that Real Image, with 2500 odd screens, and UFO, with 3,180 screens, offers across India is huge The average single screen full capacity is 600 against 250 for multiplexes and the cost is one-fifth of plexes, points out says Ratan Singh Rathore, national cluster head, radio and cinema, GroupM, one of Indias largest media agencies. When Hero Motors wanted to advertise its new identity post the break up with Honda, it did the usual TV and print number. But it also went ballistic with cinema. It chose to advertise on over

3,000 digital screens across India for two weeks continuously. They wanted impact, says Rathore. Solving the reach problem This reach was available earlier too, but was inaccessible. Remember that Indias 9,000 odd (active) screens are largely owned by individuals. So, if Hero wanted to take a network of say 500 theatres in Tamil Nadu, it would have to talk to 500 theatre owners individually. With digital theatres all that has changed. Both the chains usually try and get advertising rights thrown into the deal when they digitise a theatre. They own the rights to a bulk of the theatres they sell or lease equipment to. Then, they aggregate centrally, the selling, display and serving of ads to their respective networks. There are advantages to advertising in cinema halls versus television. In television you need to keep hammering a message home to get across. The consumer could switch channels or some interruption could happen at home. In the cinema you have a captive audience, one large, dark screen and it cant fast forward it. So it is a much more receptive audience, says Rajesh Mishra, CEO, India operations, UFO. The CPT or cost of reaching a thousand people using digital cinema is less than that of television, depending of course on genres, audiences and other variables, says Rathore. MS Rajagopalan, president, Real Image adds that to optimise return on investment an advertiser should use the network for at least four weeks. The big issue is unlike rating points there are no proven metrics in cinema advertising. Both the players are trying to address that. In Tamil Nadu for instance Real Image has the advertising rights to 475 of the 550 screens using its equipment. According to a study done by Nielsen this network was the second most effective way of reaching audiences across Tamil Nadu, after Sun TV. A similar study is being repeated across Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal before Real starts selling ad time on its screens in these two states. Roughly, 20 per cent of Real Images ad revenues in March, 2011 came from large national advertisers such as HUL. The remaining 80 per cent came from large regional brands such as Nallis or local retail chains. This mirrors growth in other media. For example, a bulk of the growth in Indian newspapers or television is coming from spreading out into the rest of India and tapping into local and regional advertising. It is a story investors and advertisers bought into long back. So, all Real and UFO have to do now is keep that breathless pace of growth going in order to dominate film distribution in India. 13.

List of digital cinema companies

Arri digital cinema camera manufacturer Barco digital projector manufacturer Christie digital projector manufacturer Deluxe Digital Studios distributor and theater system integrator Dolby Laboratories theater system integrator IMAX digital projector manufacturer Kodak theater system integrator NEC digital projector manufacturer MasterImage 3D 3D cinema and mobile display technology Panavision 3D 3D cinema display technology RealD Cinema 3D cinema display technology RED Digital Cinema Camera Company digital cinema camera manufacturer Silicon Imaging digital cinema camera manufacturer Sony manufacturer of 4K digital projector, cinema camera manufacturer and digital cinema servers and theater system integrator Technicolor distributor and theater system integrator Texas Instruments developers of DLP projector technology XDC theater system integrator & digital server manufacture