Digital Video and Disintermediation in the Value System of the Motion Picture Industry

Intermediaries are an important part of the value added structure for most industries and can take various forms like retailers, wholesalers or agencies. This is also true for the motion picture industry, where numerous intermediaries are involved in the development, distribution and exploitation of motion pictures. While the concept of intermediation has been applied to a number of industries including the finance industry, tourism industry or other sectors of the media industry, like the music sector, research on the motion picture industry and intermediation is very limited and the role of intermediaries is rarely discussed. Despite this gap, some of the contributions on the value added structure of the motion picture suggest that advancements in technology will lead to disintermediation, which refers to the elimination of intermediaries from the value added structure of the industry.

This thesis aims to close these gaps. On the one hand, by examining and comparing the various approaches that are able to capture and analyze value added structure in order to allow an assessment of the suitability for the analysis of the motion picture industry. On the other hand, by analyzing intermediation and related concepts from a theoretical point of view and identifying the factors that have to be considered when analyzing disintermediation and applying the findings to the motion picture industry. This will allow an appropriate assessment of the potential of disintermediation to occur within the value added structure of the motion picture industry, which is the main focus of this thesis.