EuroVoD, the network of European independent VOD platforms, welcomed 11 new members in 2018, as well as 6 new members since the beginning of 2019.
The group gathered for the General Assembly to discuss achievements from the past year as well as the challenges for the year to come.
The association presented a report on its activity in 2018, which has been an important year with a shift in strategy, with a focus now on training, networking, lobbying and fostering the competitiveness of the European VoD sector. Following this new trajectory, EuroVoD expanded and welcomed 11 new members in 2018, as well as 6 new members since the beginning of 2019, bringing the total number of members to 19 core members and 5 associate members (among which the latest newcomers: Zoo Digital, UK and MinersINC, India), coming from 18 countries and covering all the territories worldwide (34 territories from national and international platforms, and 4 global services), and presenting an average of 76% European films in the common catalogues of the members of the association.
The Board of Directors also reported on the successful first edition of the European VOD Meetings, supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA programme, whose next editions will take place in Venice (2-5 September 2019) and in Sofia (18-21 March 2020).
The first edition of the training gathered 89 executive professionals representing 69 companies coming from 24 countries, mainly European, but also from India, Colombia, Greenland, Mexico and US. The deadline for the application to the Venice workshop is June 30, which is a 4-days residential professional training programme taking place during the Venice Film Festival on the private island of San Servolo.
The General assembly was also an opportunity to strengthen the cooperation among the members through the development of common projects, sharing of resources, benchmarking and fostering a knowledge economy in the independent VOD sector, facilitating a collaborative management between VoD platforms and pooling resources to increase the competitiveness of the sector.
The discussion of EuroVOD acting as an inclusive point of reference for the European public institutions’ VoD services funding schemes was also addressed, as well as the growing cooperation with the European Audiovisual Observatory for the implementation of Lumiere VOD, launched April 16 this year.
During the General Assembly has also been elected the new Board of Directors: Jean-Yves Bloch / President – ContentScope (DE) universcine.de; José Antonio de Luna / Vice-President – Comunidad Filmin (ES) filmin.es, filmin.pt, filmin.mx; William Page / Secretary – FilmDoo (UK) filmdoo.com; Maxime Lacour / Treasurer – UniversCiné Belgium & Luxembourg universcine.be, uncut.be, uncut.lu, vod.lu; Andreas Wildfang / Administrator – EYZ Media (DE) realeyz.de; Kiril Gjozev / Administrator – CutAway (MK) cinesquare.net; and Estelle Bringer / Administrator – Filmoline (FR) filmotv.fr.
