AUDIOVISUAL POLICY : STUDY SUPPORTS COMMISSION'S CINEMATIC AMBITIONS.

Every cinema has its audience... But while tastes differ, the internet unites many categories of film-lover, a European Commission study, published on 6 February, has shown. As is often the case, the study marries up with the EU executive's goals. Regarding cinema, the Commission's objective is to develop the supply of online films in order to reach new audiences who do not live near cinemas via the new Creative Europe programme and its MEDIA sub-programme (worth almost 6 million a year).

In the spring of 2013, two consultants interviewed 4,608 Europeans aged between four to 50 years in ten countries (the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Croatia, Romania, Lithuania and Denmark) regarding their tastes in film. The results have shown that television remains the primary source of movies (for 90% of respondents, with 79% of films coming from free channels) - ahead of cinemas (87%) and DVDs (67%). However, computers are now dominating the landscape -a 87% of respondents used computers to watch films - and 36% did so 'often' - as are, increasingly, smartphones and tablets.

The Commission is particularly interested in the following figures: 68% of respondents admitted to downloading files for free and storing them on their personal hard disks, while 56% said they watched films via streaming from free sites. a"Free downloaders tend to be young, urban and educated, keen film viewers interested in the diversity of films but frustrated by the cost and narrow catalogues of legal offers," says the report. Lack of availability is the main driver behind...