Scrabble Entertainment to change the face of Cinema Exhibition in India... A Digital Revolution

The arrival of digital cinema offers a paradigm shift for cinema theatre owners worldwide. It also has the potential to revolutionize the exhibition and distribution businesses more than any innovation in years.

As a digital cinema services company, Scrabble will work with content owners including major studios, independent distributors and the exhibitor. Under a Virtual Print Fee (VPF) business model, Scrabble will finance the exhibitors’ transition to digital by collecting a negotiated “virtual print fee” from movie distributors.

On the exhibition front, Scrabble has already contracted with PVR, Fun Cinemas, Inox & Fame Cinemas to install this digital system in their cinemas. On the other hand it has VPF Contracts signed with all the major Producers / Distributors like UTV, Shree Ashtavinayak, Studio 18, Balaji Telefilms etc……..The VPF deals with the Hollywood Studios are currently under advanced negotiation and they are likely to be signed any time now.

On Tuesday, 2nd of September 2008, a panel discussion was held in Mumbai, panelists present at this press conference were, Mr. Ranjit Thakur, CEO, Scrabble entertainment Pvt Ltd, Mr. Amitabh Vardhan, CEO, PVR Cinemas, Mr. Kanwal Preet Singh Brar, Sales Manager, India – Christie Digital Systems and Mr. Vishal Kapur, CEO, Fun cinemas.

Ranjit Thakur, CEO, Scrabble Entertainment, said “Our 2 K Digital Platform will change the way movies are shown in India. This unique business model is a win – win for the entire industry. The exhibitors will have increased revenue and lower operational costs while the content providers will have a substantial savings on print cost and eventually benefit in a big way as piracy will be curtailed with our mass deployment. ”

“ Hollywood Studios will be also be largely benefited as this will enable them to have Day and Date Releases in India at a much lower cost and Digital will help them show case 3 D content as well. ”

“You will get a glimpse and recognize the potential of 3 D when Journey to the Center of the Earth is released digitally in 3D by E-City Ventures”
Exhibitors for some of the movies are already using the technology. For instance, PVR Cinemas - Juhu, Inox - Nariman Point have tested this technology to showcase all the films released recently and got a tremendous response.

Mr. Amitabh Vardhan , CEO , PVR Cinemas, said “ We will now be able to maximize our advertisement revenue, get better show placements & also be able to show case alternate content. Also PVR’s revenue from Hollywood Content is the highest in the industry and the fact that we will be getting more day and date releases from the

Hollywood studios & with the opportunity to play 3 D Movies, it will definitely add to our bottom line. PVR sees this as the future of exhibition & will completely support Scrabble in their effort to digitize India”

PVR today has 19 screens running on 2 K Digital with no analog back up. It plans to install atleast 30 to 40 Digital Screens every year.

Mr. Alok Tandon, COO, Inox Leisure said, “Inox is delighted to be a part of this digital revolution which will counter piracy, promote day and date releases with an enhanced cinema going experience. This technology shift is a positive change that will enable every cinema to get content in a easier and more secured way.”

Mr. Ramesh Sippy – CEO , Balaji Telefilms said “ Scrabble, by its entry into the Digital Projection of Feature films in regular cinema houses is expected to revolutionize the larger reach of Cinema to a larger section of the country's population very soon.

It is something the Media & Entertainment needed since quite some time and this will also set higher standards for those who those in the industry who claim to have never seen before.”

Advantages of this Deployment:

1. Complete elimination of Piracy, Safe & secure medium of content transfer
2. Simultaneous release of film on all India basis
3. Maximizing advertisement revenue
4. Opens doors for displaying alternate content
5. Global standards of ‘Projection’ quality
6. The content is protected with multiple levels of encryption, and each projector has its own encryption key. On a technical level, the quality of the film going experience is as good as 35mm today.
7. The movies look and sound better. Digital cinema also reduces the cost of distribution, eliminating the need for making costly prints and the need to rent, deliver, collect and store prints.
8. It is also much easier to assign extra screenings to a hit and drop screenings of a flop. All interested parties seem to agree that digital projection results not only in higher-quality images and sound but will also save on cost since studios could distribute films via satellite.