The disappearance of the DVD

El director de comunicación de Voddler (empresa considerada como el ‘Spotify del vídeo), Anders Sjöman, ha planteado en FICOD 2010 una batalla con tres frentes: cambiar la industria cinematográfica, la tecnología de visualización tradicional y el modelo de negocio establecido. “La piratería aún no ha golpeado al cine de la misma forma que al mercado musical, nosotros proponemos una transición al digital antes de que lo haga”.

Voddler could be to cinema what Spotify is to music. The Swedish start-up is revolutionizing the entertainment industry based on on-demand cinema, and its success in the Nordic countries aims to soon spread to the rest of Europe. Anders Sjöman, Voddler's communications director, explained at FICOD 2010 the keys to its success and announced a future marked by the disappearance of the DVD and the primacy of the Internet.

According to Sjöman, piracy is the order of the day and “the most worrying thing is not that people of all profiles download movies illegally, but that people do so who would be willing to pay for them if they found this offer on the Internet.” In this scenario, it seems that Voddler has found the master formula to develop a new sustainable and profitable business model that facilitates the transition from the film industry to digital, “where, in addition, the first beneficiary is the consumer.”

“Everyone should embrace our initiative,” Sjöman repeated, “consumers, because they will be able to watch all the movies they want at home; advertisers, because we offer them a segmented market and they can directly approach their target customer; and production companies, because we offer them the formula to make the transition to the digital world.”

According to Sjöman, the traditional distribution chain, the one through which films go from cinema to DVD, from this to pay television and then to free-to-air television, “has broken” and a multiplicity of options have appeared. Thus, in its offer, Voddler includes films released directly on Voddler, series made exclusively for Voddler and independent films that, without having reached the cinema or DVD, have reached Voddler.

La publicidad y el marketing también pueden adoptar fórmulas radicalmente diferentes en Voddler. Por primera vez, el propio usuario puede elegir si recibe la publicidad delante de la película, al final, intercalada o cuando apriete al “pause”. Incluso, podrá decidir que anuncio ve de entre las opciones que se le presentan, todas ellas seleccionadas de acuerdo con su perfil. Una vez más, se le otorga al espectador la capacidad de responder y obtener un producto personalizado.

Another innovation consists of helping the user find good titles through recommendations obtained from their “Voddler friends”, connections with Facebook, Twitter or rankings. “We don't want to compete with Seriesyonkis or Pirate Bay, we want to offer added value.”

A battle on three fronts

Voddler has raised a battle to transform three fronts: the industry, traditional display technology and the established business model, “that is why changes are slow.”

The Hollywood giants have already opted for the Voddler model, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros., NBC Universal and Miramax are some of the production companies that already have agreements with the platform.

Hasta el momento se han visto en Voddler más de 4.5 millones de películas seleccionadas entre los 3.100 títulos disponibles, 80 por ciento ofertadas de forma gratuita y el resto como contenido premium.

Sjöman terminó su ponencia haciendo un llamamiento para que todos los usuarios se unan al movimiento de liberalización del cine y conseguir que todas las películas puedan fluir de forma legal y con calidad por Internet.