Lumiere VOD Database Launched at Council of Europe

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Thu, 04/18/2019 - 10:43 -- Nick Dager

Lumiere VOD was launched this week at the Council of Europe by Mariya Gabriel, the EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society and the Council’s Secretary General, Thorbjorn Jagland in the presence of Silvia Costa, Member of the European Parliament and Rapporteur for Creative Europe and president of the Association of Film Directors and Producers, filmmaker Radu Milaileanu. The database contains information on more than 35,000 European films offered 150,000 times on VOD. This data has been taken from 250 different VOD catalogues available in 28 European countries.

Lumiere VOD was launched this week at the Council of Europe.Today, just 29 percent of films offered by VOD services in the EU are European and until now there have been no European databases of films available on VOD, only national online tools. This is in spite of the fact that Europe is a major player in world cinema, with more than 18,000 films produced between 2007 and 2017 and a global production volume, which has increased by 47 percent between 2007 and 2017.

Gabriel said, “Europe has been, and still is, a huge player when it comes to film production. It is up to us to ensure that European works enjoy the audience that they deserve. Lumiere VOD, covering already more than 150 VOD services and 35,000 European films, is an initiative taken in the frame of our Digital4Culture strategy.”

Susanne Nikoltchev, Executive Director of the European Audiovisual Observatory said, “The creation of Lumiere VOD is a logical development of the Observatory’s research and already valuable expertise concerning the VOD markets in Europe.”

Both the European Commission and the Observatory hope that this new platform will provide greater transparency concerning the European VOD market. It may indeed help increase the presence, visibility and circulation of European films across borders.

With further developments, this tool could additionally provide an indication of the level of implementation of the quota of 30 percent of European works for VOD services contained in the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and thus contribute to the policy objective to ensure and increase the presence of European works in VOD services available in the European Union.

The launch of Lumiere VOD was made possible thanks to the support of Amazon Prime Video, Ampere Analysis, Apple, CNC, EuroVOD, FilmDoo, Filmin, Filmtoro JustWatch, Kino Fondas, La Cinetek, La Pantalla Digital, Le Kino.ch, Mediathèque Numérique, Netflix, realeyz, uncut, UniversCiné, VOD Club, VOD.lu, Vodeville.