France’s Metropolitan Filmexport and Le Meilleur du Cinema are acquiring a 35% stake in Spanish VOD platform Filmin.
One of Europe’s biggest indie film distributors, Metropolitan is also the largest shareholder in Le Meilleur du Cinema, which owns French VOD service UniversCine, and recently acquired a 49% stake in Belgium VOD service UniversCine Belgium.
“Our recent investments in UniversCine Belgium and Filmin follow the success of our own VOD service, Cinema a la Demande, which is operated by Le Meilleur du Cinema. These additional investments reflect our commitment to the international expansion of our VOD operations,” said Metropolitan CEO Victor Hadida.
“This is a crucial time for the European VOD sector, made up predominantly of independent services operating in an increasingly competitive environment,” said Le Meilleur du Cinema CEO Jean-Yves Bloch.
France’s Wild Bunch is also attempting to build a pan-European VOD operation. Europe’s complex patchwork of online regulations and licensing deals, divided by national boundaries, has been regarded as an obstacle to ramping up VOD services across the continent.