Report: theatrical admissions has little impact on TVOD window

The average window between the theatrical release of popular movies in cinemas and their transactional video-on-demand release across five European markets is 19 weeks, according to a report by the European Audiovisual Observatory.

According to the report, the average window for retail VOD – the definitive sale of a film – across Belgium, Germany, France, the UK and the Netherlands is 18.6 weeks and the window for rental TVOD is 19.4 weeks.

The majority of the more successful films are released between four and five months after the theatrical release, and only 18% of the more successful films are released more than 5 months after the theatrical release.

There is relatively little difference between the five markets studies in terms of the length of windows. For retail TVOD, the gap between the shortest window, that of the UK, and the longest, Germany, is three weeks. The gap between the shortest rental window country, Belgium, and the longest, Germany, is 2.6 weeks.

While the TVOD window is regulated in France to four months, the longest windows occur in Germany, where the window for publicly-funded movies is regulated to six months.

The study found that US films have slightly shorter windows separating cinema releases from TVOD than European films, with the exception of the UK.

National films have a significantly longer window in Germany, thanks to the public funding rule.

The study found that among more successful movies, the level of cinema admissions does not seem to overmuch affect the length of the window.

The European window is significantly shorter than the average window for retail TVOD in the US, which was 12.3 weeks last year.