Sony Pictures, AAM in Digital Cinema Rollout Deal

LONDON, December 6: Sony Pictures Releasing International
and Arts Alliance Media (AAM) have reached a non-exclusive long-term agreement
for digital cinema deployment in Europe.

Under the agreement, Sony Pictures has committed to supply
its films to certain European countries in digital format to AAM-deployed
DCI-compliant digital cinema screens (if booked as a release screen), as well
as to make financial contributions in order to promote digital cinema.

In June 2007, AAM signed Europe’s first long-term digital
cinema deployment agreements with Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Pictures
International for the conversion of close to 7,000 screens over the next few
years, and most recently, Paramount Pictures International also independently
committed to support AAM’s digital rollout in Europe. Furthermore, in November,
the first European cinema chain, CGR Cinemas in France, signed up with AAM to
convert 100 percent of its 400 screens to digital.

AAM is in active negotiations for further deployment
agreements with other Hollywood studios, as well as European distributors and
exhibitors, with announcements to follow shortly.

Mark Zucker, the president of distribution for Sony Pictures
Releasing International, said: “Arts Alliance Media’s plan to roll out digital
cinema in Europe has been embraced by the industry, and the winners are the
moviegoers across Europe who will enjoy a state-of-the-art, higher quality
theatrical experience. Through this conversion process, audiences will get to
see motion pictures the way filmmakers intended, with beautiful, clear images
and pitch perfect sound. Digital cinema is a true revolution in motion picture
exhibition and we’re proud to be a part of it.”

—By Irene Lew