ots Ad hoc-Service: CinemaxX AG <DE0005085708> CinemaxX, CineStar and UFA plan Internet portal for cinema ticket sales
Hamburg (ots Ad hoc-Service) -
The sender is solely responsible for the contents of this announcement.
Germany's three largest cinema companies CinemaxX AG, Kieft & Kieft Filmtheater GmbH and UFA Theater GmbH are planning to offer cinema ticket sales nationwide via a separate Internet portal. The three groups signed an agreement on the establishment of a jointly operated company via which online cinema ticket sales are to be handled in future. The scheduled joint venture will lead to the launch of Germany's first full-coverage advance sales system for cinema tickets, via which it will eventually be possible to buy tickets for almost 1,000 cinemas operated by the partners.
Next year, CinemaxX, CineStar and UFA together expect to attract over 60 million visitors. The three cinema companies thus currently account almost 40 percent of the German cinema market, which is the second largest in the world after the USA. In the rapidly growing multiplex sector and in some cities and conurbations their combined market share is already still much higher.
The participating groups expect to see a sharp rise in demand for online advance cinema ticket sales in the short term, because the planned Internet portal will for the first time offer all-round convenience for advance sales - from the reservation of the ticket to its payment. Representatives of the three companies emphasise that the launching of this new facility adds an entirely new dimension to customer service and will help to tap new potential cinema audiences.
It will in addition subsequently become possible to control further sales activities via the envisaged e-business model, which will simultaneously act as a new information and communication forum for the product "films at the cinema". This also provides an ideal opportunity to pave the way for joint ventures and partnerships with technology, finance and media companies and to integrate other suppliers into the rapidly expanding entertainment and leisure sector.
The Internet portal in particular offers film distributors and producers new opportunities and prospects for establishing direct contact with the cinema-goer. In view of the increasing importance of audiovisual media, the cinema remains the largest and most prominent link in the utilisation chain of film productions: only a film that is a success at the box office will bring in lucrative royalties from showings on pay and free TV for the owner of the film rights, as well as income from DVD, video and merchandising sales.
Queries:
Thomas Schulz, Press, Tel. +49-40-45068-181
End of message Internet: http://recherche.newsaktuell.de
Original content of: CinemaxX Holdings GmbH, transmitted by news aktuell