Video on demand increasingly popular in The Netherlands

Providers of Video on Demand (VoD) in the Netherlands expect the number of requested videos will increase by 35% to a total 135 million over 2011. This expectation was expressed Thursday by UPC, Ziggo, KPN and Samsung at an event to celebrate the launch of a new cooperation scheme between these companies: the Foundation for Video on Demand, yesterday in Amsterdam.

VoD is a service that allows consumers to stream movies, TV shows, et cetera and watch whenever they like. Throughout 2010, 750,000 VoD users in the Netherlands requested over 100 million paid and free programs. This amounts to approximately 100 hours of watching television per user per year. Convenience is probably the main reason why VoD is a growth market.

Video-on-demand currently accounts for twice the volume of the "traditional" rental industry for Dutch film production company Dutch FilmWorks. CEO Willem Pruijssers explains: ''Until recently, competition on the Dutch market for these services was limited, because cable companies had divided the market geographically and de facto did not compete. Now telecom operator KPN has decided to bet on interactive television, more competition emerges in The Netherlands.” Whether prices will drop as a result, Mr. Pruijssers does not dare to say, ''but there surely be more offers and special deals coming up''.

A new on-demand movies currently averages € 4.99 in The Netherlands, older titles generally cost around € 2.99. According to Mr. Pruijssers, illegal downloading will always be the preferred way to access footage for a certain group of people, however he believes the benefits of legal VoD remain strong, and piracy will not prevent its growth. He believes “not everyone will make the effort to browse through clandestine sites to look for a movie to download and then transfer it to television” while risking collateral damage such as viruses and malware.

Ruud Lamers, former President of Warner Home, is very excited about the potential of video on demand for the film industry too. According to him, half of the turnover of the film entertainment industry will originate from digital services by 2015. "PricewaterhouseCoopers recently reported that it could already be as much as 55% in 2014. Last year, 100 million paid and free streams were requestes. This is expected to increase by 35% over 2011. Even that seems a very conservative estimate to me."

Source:  Entertainment Business News