The European Commission is launching Lumiere VOD, a database of European films which allows to find the services and the countries where a film is released on VoD (video-on-demand).

It’s now online Lumiere VOD, a new platform managed by the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) which is intended to be a browser that consolidates information on the European films that are currently available on various online VoD services across the European Union. In detail, the user can find out where a film has been released on VoD in different national markets and also discover whether it’s available in his or her country. With this tool, the European Commission and the EAO hope to increase transparency around the VoD markets operating in Europe and to foster visibility and circulation of European films. LUMIERE VOD is accessible by everyone but is primarily designed for audiovisual industry professionals (authors, producers and distributors) in order to help them to track the exploitation of films on VoD and to assess the composition of the VoD catalogues. Information on over 35,000 European films offered 150,000 times on VoD are already contained in the platform.

The service was launched at the Council of Europe in the presence of Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Thorbjorn Jagland, the Council’s General Secretary, Silvia Costa, MEP and rapporteur for Creative Europe, and Radu Mihăileanu, Romanian-born French filmmaker and president of the ARP (Société civile des Auteurs Réalisateurs Producteurs).