Digital technology could steal a chunk of overborder express business

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY could soon deal a blow to the over-border express transport industry. According to Into Africa Buzz, FTW’s sister online email newsletter, by the end of the decade theatrical motion pictures will be 'transported' digitally to theatres in neighbouring states. Ster Kinekor and Nu Metro, headquartered in Johannesburg, currently ship films to their theatres in Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho, Namibia and other Southern African markets by road or air as 35 mm or larger aperture films on metal reels. The region’s independent cinemas are all provided with films shipped similarly from distribution companies in SA. With digital technology gaining a foothold in cinema exhibition, films will soon be streamed via broadband on-line to theatres equipped with computerised digital projectors. “I don’t want to get in trouble with the courier services and road hauliers because we have good deals with them, but the sooner we can dispense with them we will save hundreds of thousands of rand a year,” a marketing official with one of the SA cinema chains told FTW. One of the major headaches for film distributors is getting films to theatres in time for advertised screenings. Theatres pay daily film rental fees, and want them delivered on screening days and returned immediately to Johannesburg at the end of their runs. Transportation delays and customs snafus are the bane of film distributors. One-third of all European cinemas and a sizable minority of US cinemas will be digitalised in two years, and capable of receiving new releases via the internet. SA and regional cinemas will have no choice but to follow suit because the time is coming when a reel of celluloid film will have gone the way of the LP and analogue video cassette. However, what transport firms lose moving film prints is expected to be offset by a rise in SA film production, which requires extensive logistics.