A subsidiary of Sweden’s Bonnier, Scandinavia’s largest media group, Norway’s No 1 distributor SF Norge has signed a two-year contract with UK’s Unique Digital and Bug Norway to transmit films to the theatres on the internet without the use of DCP hard discs.

“We have testet the system over a long period – our last film in the Varg Veum franchise, Trond Espen Seim’s (Kalde hjerter) [pictured] was this spring sent directly to 40 cinemas, and now we can supply more than 90% of the 185 theatres through the web, as the first country in the Varg Veum-Cold Hearts world,” explained SF Norge ceo Guttorm Petterson.

“Previously we would send a dcp hard disc with the film to the cinemas by mail – the seize of an old video cassette – in an orange plastic box. Now we transfer the app 100 gigabite file overnight on a encrypted connection – it takes app three hours – and the local operator can access it the following morning with the right code,” added distribution manager Åge Hoffart.

After the successful launch in Norway, Unique Digital – which has offices in Dublin, London, Singapore, Bergen, and is headed by Chris Ohlsson-Hagen – is now marketing the network solution at international festivals and markets. After a national digital roll-out – the first of its kind in the world – Norway’s 410 screens all over the country has been digitally equipped.