Hollywood unites on satellite movie delivery – but is it too late already?

With the overwhelming majority of multiplexes in the US converted to digital, the largest cinema chains have now reached agreement with the majority of Hollywood studios for the satellite delivery of DCPs. The Digital Cinema Distribution Coalition (DCDC) has added Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures and Lionsgate to co-founding studios Warner Bros and Universal Pictures. DCDC was formed in 2012 between DCIP (the digital cinema arm of the three largest US exhibitors AMC, Cinemark and Regal), Warners and Universal, with Deluxe/EchoStar handling the integration, in what was crucially billed as a “not-for-profit” venture. “Our goal is to drive the cost of distribution as low as we can get it,” DCDC spokesman Randolph Blotky tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We’d like to drive it to zero over the course of time.”