The long tail hasn’t yet arrived, Teun Hilte of Content Republic – in Rotterdam today to give a talk on digital distribution at the Rotterdam Lab – tells Geoffrey Macnab
The independent film community has embraced long-tail theory with enthusiasm. Applied to the movie business, this is the idea that niche movies selling in small quantities can still generate significant profits via new digital distribution initiatives.
“The long tail is definitely possible in the future,” Content Republic boss Teun Hilte comments. “I don’t think the theory is a write-off. But considering the amount of resources and time that go into digitising and distributing films digitally, it is prohibitive for a lot of films because the revenues aren’t there.”
Content Republic licences films on internet platforms. It acts as an intermediary between independent distributors and major internet platforms like iTunes, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and Lovefilm. Hilte describes the company, founded in 2006, as a digital equivalent to a wholesaler supplying product to major retailers.
Digitisation
Hilte will be telling young producers in Rotterdam to take digital releasing more seriously. This means providing adequate promotional materials and trailers in decent formats. “It’s agonising how often we are chasing materials that are somehow quite elusive and that we need to complete the package and deliver it to our partners,” Hilte notes. “There is a direct correlation between the success of a film and the amount of materials that are available to promote it online.” The main platforms remain very selective about which movies they will make available on their platforms. If the materials are not of a good enough quality, the platforms are likely to reject the movies.
Hilte says that a feature film of an average length costs a distributor around £300 to digitise through Content Republic. There is also a charge of £150 each time the film has to be delivered. Content Republic also works on a revenue share model. In this case, the distributor does not pay anything at all. Content Republic will take care of the online marketing, digitisation and storage in exchange for a share of revenue. “In a lot of cases, smaller distributors have opted for that. They’re unsure what revenues are going to come back and they would rather that we share their risk with them,” Hilte says. “We are prepared to do that but not on all films… I don’t mind telling you that some films we have worked on have barely made enough for lunch.”
Multi-platform releasing
This isn’t necessarily a reflection on the films. It is more a sign of how “immature” the movie download market remains. In the UK or Holland, Hilte suggests, “if you asked anybody in the street, you would be hard pressed to find anybody who is familiar with downloading films and paying for them and who does so on a regular basis.”
However, Hilte believes this will eventually change. Content Republic recently struck a deal with UK production outfit Warp to handle Shane Meadows’ Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee. “We know he has a big following in the UK and we know we can target that online… we can find his fan base.”
The Content Republic co-founder is also confident that mutli-platform releasing will become more and more commonplace. “Most of the distributors and exhibitors in the theatrical space or even on DVD are increasingly accepting that, whether you like it or not, films are going to be available online from day one. It’s pointless to say that you are going to artificially enforce windows when actually those windows are already annihilated by the fact that the film is available.” Hilte argues that a multi-platform release has “a big upside” for distributors, enabling them to collapse marketing budgets and cross-promote films. Here in Rotterdam, Hilte’s message for producers is upbeat. “Ultimately, it’s about the product. We love to hear from filmmakers directly and will gladly look at their films… a good film will always find distribution.”