On Demand Summit: Sehring Says Indie Films, VOD Must Flow With the Current

IFC Entertainment chief notes day-and-date, pre-theatrical releasing are bolstering the business

By Mike Reynolds, Multichannel News -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/20/2012 12:15:51 PM

New York - In order to win in the realms of independent film and video on demand, one has to keep moving.

So said Jonathan Sehring, president of Sundance Selects and IFC Films, during his keynote interview at the fourth annnual On Demand Summit, presented by Multichannel News and B&C at Sentry Centers, here Wednesday morning. The executive in an interview with B&C editor in chief Ben Grossman talked about the virtues of day-and- date VOD and the benefits of pre-theatrical releasing as a new window instructing the indie business.

Sehring said that when IFC first assessed the theatrical film distribution business it already had an eye on pushing movies from movie theaters to living rooms via cable.

"The theatrical film distribution model is not a great one," he said, noting that history showed companies were in the mix for five to seven years before exiting. "It's not like with studios that also do TV. We had an eye on utilizing cable to get to a much larger audience."

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