MUMBAI: In the last eight years since it entered the India market, UFO Moviez has revolutionized the cinema distribution and exhibition market.

Its technology driven distribution and exhibition model- based on satellite and digitization- has enable theatre owners, especially in smaller centres to offer ‘First Day First Show'. It currently has presence in more than 3200 screens across India, in more than 30 languages and over 14.7 million shows.

With the country’s entertainment industry pegged to reach $ 200 billion by 2015 the company is gearing up to expand its footprint across the market.

Drivers of demand for quality entertainment will be the increasing urbanization of the country beyond the major metros, better communication, and increase in disposable income. The entertainment industry is set to heat up.

“The global entertainment industry is projected to reach US$ 1.8 trillion by 2015. Asian region expected to play a central role in it, with India poised to contribute about US$ 200 billion i.e. a sizable chunk of the global industry. The Media and Entertainment (M & E) industry is one of the most booming sectors in India. UFO Moviez revolutionized the way films are distributed and exhibited through its pioneering technology, infrastructure and unique pay per show business model,” UFO Moviez COO Pankaj Jaysingh told Radioandmusic.com.  

The company’s thrust will be through its subsidiary, Scrabble Entertainment- India’s only DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative) Compliant Digital Cinema Deployment Entity -having VPF (Virtual Print Free) contracts with the six major Hollywood Studios. 

“We plan to increase our presence in the market from 1200 DCI screens to 2500 screens by 2015.  Globally, Scrabble plans to digitize about 5,000 screens over the next couple of years.  We have leveraged the inherent advantages of the digital-satellite system to deliver a flexible, efficient, versatile and cost-effective Digital Cinema System to the film industry,” Singh said.

On the technical front, UFO Movies will use its tried and tested MPEG-4 technology based Digital Cinema System.

MPEG-4 technology, allows for reliable and speedy delivery of digitized movies via satellite. It also has the advantage of storing multiple numbers of movies on UFO server at the theatre. This provides flexibility to schedule the number of shows with different movies, which basically creates a pseudo multiplex environment for the theatre substantially increasing the revenue, according to Singh.

The enhanced experienced is not limited to visuals. Its collaboration with Dolby Laboratories has enabled it to offer UFO-Dolby co-branded CP750 cinema processors for “quality cinematic surround sound to audiences.”

Dolby assisted UFO setup provides an end-to-end digital sound process and helping to provide “an authentic audio experience” in the theatres.

Dolby assisted UFO with setup for the digital encoding and mastering workflow for UFO Moviez provides UFO-Dolby co-branded CP750 cinema processors, delivering a complete end-to-end digital sound process and helping to provide an authentic audio experience in the theatres.

Currently, sound in many digital cinemas in India goes through multiple conversions from digital to analog and back, resulting in loss in sound quality at each conversion. With Dolby technology, it is possible to bring high quality surround sound to UFO's digital cinemas whether it is 2D or 3D films.

The collaboration intends to expand the footprint and reach of premium cinema entertainment in India by delivering significant improvements that enhance the experience in theatres across the country.

With a maximum investment for theatre owners under Rs 18,000 for installing the UFO digital system at the theatre compared to Rs 60,000 required for old analog system- a cinema hall owner has to buy the print of a film which costs up to Rs 60,000- the company is confident of achieving its target.

The relatively low cost does not come at a price Singh assured stressing that there is no trade off in audio-visual quality of its films.

“On the other hand, there are several advantages to the stakeholders such as theatre owners - increased ticket sales from growing audiences, an increase in advertising revenues and sense of satisfaction among the movie goers being some of them. The picture and sound quality will always be as good as it was at the premi?re. No scratches, jumps, dirt or flicker to disturb the viewing experience,” Singh added.

With most film producers now making films and even selling them in the digital format,  theatre owners across the country would soon be left with no other option but to go digital.