British Film Institute VOD Service to Include Day-and-Date Releases
The BFI Player will go live on Oct. 9 and offer archived films and day-and-date titles, such as Clio Barnard's "The Selfish Giant."
The platform promises approximately 60 percent free content drawn from the BFI’s vast archive and library with the remaining 40 percent from pay-per-view content, including hundreds of features in the launch period with prices ranging from $4 (£2.50) to $16 for new releases.
Dyke said the key to the VOD service’s success in an increasingly crowded marketplace will be how well it’s marketed to would-be subscribers.
The BFI Player provides a fresh distribution opportunity for U.K. and art house titles and aims to make classics accessible to the widest possible audience across the U.K.
Dyke said the BFI Player “will unlock the past, present and future of British film and, most importantly, offers a new deal for U.K. audiences by ensuring that as many people as possible across the U.K. get access to great films.”
The BFI has secured $811,000 (£500,000) from the British government’s department of culture, media and sport for 2014-15 to invest in the service in addition to the “low six-figure sum” that the BFI has invested itself in the VOD system.
“The BFI is pivotal to identifying great films and nurturing and giving a voice to great filmmakers in the U.K. and now offers a platform to take these stories out to whole new audiences,” Dyke said.
The aim would be to roll out aninternational version of the U.K. platform in the coming years, but with budget cuts to the BFI, that’s unlikely to happen quickly.
The BFI Player also promises to offer “deep exploration and understanding of film content, chosen and contextualized by the experts at the BFI.”
The BFI Player team is currently in talks with partners across the industry and broadcasters, such as BBC Worldwide and ITV, to grow the content available.
BFI director of digitalEdward Humphrey played down any concerns that the BFI Player might cannibalize the Institute’s DVD buying customers. He said consumer behavior when it comes to buying DVD titles is a different beast than that of those using VOD platforms.
“Audience behavior has shifted to embrace digital platforms. Now, the BFI Player gives us a foundation from which we can support a digital future for film lovers and bring the story of film to a truly national audience,” Humphrey said.
The BFI Player’s seven different collections at launch include The BFI London Film Festival Presents section, with footage from the red carpet and previous festival award winners, and Backed by the BFI, a collection of contemporary British films, each of which garnered support from the BFI’s Film Fund.
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