The U.K. Cinema Association says the proposed $50 home movie service provides "unprecedented opportunity" for piracy.
Having divided opinion among filmmakers in the U.S., Sean Parker's proposed $50 home movie service, dubbed The Screening Room, has also come under fire from across the Atlantic.
In a statement issued Friday, the U.K. Cinema Association, which represents over 90 percent of British cinema operators, said that the proposal "represents a massive risk" to the future prosperity of its members, adding that there was "no evidence" to suggest that significant numbers of people would be willing to pay $50 to watch films at home on their day of release.
"Even if that were not the case, it is difficult to envisage how this proposal – if adopted - could do anything other than present an unprecedented opportunity for film piracy while at the same time damaging the foundations of a cinema business, which remains the key driver of revenue for the entire business," it said.
While the Association acknowledged that there was a place for the development of new business models, and that it shared the "common goal" with film distributors to encourage more people to watch more films, it asserted that this required a "collaborative approach."
