Denver, CO.—Dec 15, 2005
National CineMedia to Work with AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark USA, Regal Entertainment Group and Other Exhibitors on Digital Cinema Deployment
National CineMedia (NCM), a joint venture of AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark
USA, Inc. and Regal Entertainment Group (REG, NYSE: RGC), has reached an
agreement with each of its founding partners to work on the development of a
digital cinema business plan. The announcement was made today by Kurt Hall,
chairman and chief executive officer of NCM. The plan will be open to all
industry exhibitors, in addition to NCM's founding partners.
Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Hall said, "NCM's primary objective is to
work with manufacturers to reduce the cost of digital cinema equipment through
efficient volume purchasing for NCM's partners' 13,000 screens and other
participating exhibitor screens. NCM will also seek to develop an efficient
financing structure for the purchase of the digital cinema equipment that will
be open to all capital sources and that will provide a transparent cost
effective arrangement for exhibitors, distribution partners, capital providers
and all other key constituents. Once the financing model and equipment volume
pricing has been established, our founding partners and other exhibitors who
participate will have ultimate responsibility for deployment of digital cinema
systems."
Mr. Hall concluded, "NCM is uniquely qualified to assist with the industry
transition to digital cinema. NCM has successfully designed, deployed and
operated its national Digital Content Network (DCN) for several years and has
significant experience distributing its advertising pre shows and various forms
of live and pre recorded digital content, including sporting events, concerts
and independent films. With the DCN growing to over 11,000 screens in 2006, it
will provide an excellent platform that can be upgraded to the Digital Cinema
Initiatives (DCI) specifications with the higher quality digital cinema
equipment now available."