XDC Group and DFL have reached an agreement to allow XDC to provide significant funding of the digital roll-out in Ireland. Existing DFL VPF agreements with Irish exhibitors will be transferred to XDC. Already deployed digital systems will be acquired by XDC and managed under their VPF agreement with the Studios.
Serge Plasch, Chief Executive Officer of XDC Group said: Ireland is a key country in our pan-European expansion and I am much excited about this project. On one hand this will enable our FTT integrator network to support DCL with the Irish digital roll-out and on the other hand XDC will take care of the VPF roll-out initiative. This is an important achievement towards our pan-European strategy.
For DFL/DCL this agreement also marks an important point for the acceleration of the conversion to digital as Kevin Cummins, CEO of DFL/DCL pointed out: Its great that we have reached agreement with XDC. DFL has 150 systems already deployed and this agreement with XDC will speed up the roll-out of an additional 400 screens in the next 12 months. We are also delighted to cooperate with FTT the largest cinema service company in Europe.
David Pope, XDCs Director of Operations for UK & IR added: This is XDCs first step into Ireland and what a giant step it is! I am looking forward to working with Kevin and his team. The cinema market in Ireland is a perfect candidate for a 100% digital conversion.
Paul Anderson, MD Omniplex Holdings NI Limited: Converting to digital projection is a seminal moment in the history of cinema. OMNIPLEX are delighted to have reached agreement with XDC to convert all 88 OMNIPLEX screens in 11 locations in Northern Ireland.
Osborne Spurling and Andy OGorman, Directors of Movies @ Group: We are delighted that XDC and DFL have reached agreement and we have seen immediate results with the full digitalisation of our two sites Movies @ Dundrum (12 Screens) and Movies @ Swords (11 Screens).
Brendan Flannery, Director of Gate Cinemas: Working with DFL we have full digital at our North Main Street, Cork cinema (6 Screens) and we will be converting Mallow (5 Screens), Midleton (5 Screens) and Douglas (5 Screens) in the new year, as a result of this agreement with XDC.
Under the terms of this agreement, all existing VPF agreements between DFL and Irish exhibitors will be transferred to XDC. XDC will also provide the financing for this roll-out by using its existing credit facility with ING Lease in Ireland and BNP Paris-bas Fortis in Northern Ireland.
All the systems will be connected to XDCs NOC (Network Operations Centre) which will perform the hotline support and the preventive remote maintenance. Thanks to a sophisticated XDC web-based application we will establish a full remote monitoring of the digital system.
The first exhibitors that have joined this new initiative are:
OMNIPLEX NI 88 - Northern Ireland 11 Cinemas with 88 Screens
Movies @ Group 23 - Dundrum (12) and Swords (11)
Gate Cinemas 21 - Cork (6), Mallow (5), Midleton (5) and Douglas (5)
Spurling Cinemas 18 - Gorey (7), Dungarvan (4) and Mayo (7)
Reel Cinemas 13 - Ballincollig (6) and Blackpool (7)
Movieland 6 - Newtownards (6)
Flix Cinemas 5 - Roscommon (5)
Park Cinema 3 - Clonakilty (3)
