ALLOCIN… LAUNCHES TV CHANNEL

AlloCiné, a company specialising in information about films and in selling cinema tickets, launched a TV channel, AlloCiné Télévision, on September 1. The channel will be available on the Canal Satellite Numérique package to begin with. Negotiations are under way with other satellite and cable carriers.

The channel will comprise film trailers, interviews, talk shows, ‘making of’ and reviews. Some 52 per cent of the programming will be produced internally, with a production of four hours of new programmes a day. All trailers will get an equal number of showings, so as not to appear biased in the favour of one particular film. The aim of the channel is to “give people the desire to go to the movies.” The onscreen branding is devised to remind viewers of being in a cinema, right down to music by film score composer Michel Legrand. AlloCiné (49 per cent owned by Banexi, 25 per cent by Canal Numedia and 26 per cent by founders) provides information on films, current theatre releases and full listings of local cinema screening times via telephone, Web, Wap, Minitel, and gains revenue from a mixture of premium rate phone lines and a percentage on sale of cinema tickets.

The TV channel will be funded by advertising, while t-commerce of cinema tickets is possible future option.