A new study from the European Audiovisual Observatory has found that the average release window in Germany, France, United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands is 19.4 weeks from the time of a film’s release and it’s availability to purchase via video on demand. According to the study, there is a difference of only three weeks between the shortest window, the UK with 17.5 weeks, and Germany with 20.5 weeks.
By comparison the theatrical window was 12.3 weeks in the USA in 2018, a drop of almost five weeks since 2012.
The European Audiovisual Observatory, part of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, has analyzed cinema/video on demand release windows for the first time in this study. Author Gilles Fontaine, head of the Observatory’s department for market information, looked at 1794 releases in cinemas and video on demand between 2014 and 2018.
This sample represents only 15 percent of all films on first release. However, it represents 40 percent of total admissions, in other words the study focuses principally on the more successful films in cinemas.
An overview of the study can be downloaded here: https://rm.coe.int/the-theatrical-tvod-window-a-sample-analysis/1680951884