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11-02-2008

Online cinema launches in Poland

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    Poland's first online cinema has become an instant success. The price of an online screening at Iplex (www.iplex.pl) is 8 zł (€1.50), half the price of a ticket in a regular Polish cinema

    "With initial capital of 20,000 złoties (€5,500), we expected to break even and become profitable after two or three months," the creator and chairman of Iplex (www.iplex.pl), Łukasz Skrzypek, told FNE. "Now we have to change our servers because a couple of thousand Internauts created their accounts on launch day."

    The service was launched Feb. 8. At present, the main method of payment is by credit card and the movies have to be watched at a particular hour. "For now the website is using a different type of license for each movie because Poland doesn't have proper legislation for online projects like ours," Skrzypek said.

    The Iplex repertoire is focused on movies for a larger audience. The films will premiere at the same time online as in regular cinemas. "We are not interested in the niche market," said Skrzypek.

    The first Polish distributor working with Iplex is Vivarto (www.vivarto.pl) which is organising a festival of pre-premieres on the website on Feb. 15.