143,000 users proved too few: Video on Demand pioneer Ximon quits from 29 January

Video on Demand (VoD) is a growth market, we learned at the cinema industry's New Year's meeting this week. Despite this, Ximon, one of the Dutch pioneers in this field, is forced to to close shop at the end of this month.

"To find external funding, managing director Marc Jurgens has been negotiating with various parties, including media companies and private investors, for the past nine months. At the end of December, things were still looking good," said a spokesperson for Ximon. "However, this week it became definitively clear that there will be no additional funding for Ximon."

Ximon started 7 April 2011 as an initiative of EYE, the Institute for Sound and Vision and the Dutch Association of Feature Film Producers. The aim was to offer the complete Dutch film production - recent and historical - against payment in line with the major digitisation project Images for the Future around 2016.

From the beginning, Ximon distinguished itself by a wide range of Dutch productions, mer additionally a growing catalogue of arthouse films. Currently, the catalogue consists of over 4,300 films and series. Ximon was the first Dutch VoD platform to also offer an all-you-can-watch subscription. Initially, the offer was only viewable online, but now Ximon is also present on 80% of today's smart TVs.

Over 143,000 consumers have an account. Although this number is rising, Ximon has so far been loss-making, as was incidentally anticipated. However, the intention was that Ximon, which at the time started with an OCW contribution of €1 million, would eventually be self-supporting.

That Ximon is nevertheless forced to close is blamed on a combination of two factors. Firstly, it is still a new market, and secondly, Ximon offers a niche product for a relatively small group of enthusiasts. This is in contrast to VoD providers like Netflix, Videoland and Pathé Thuis, which target a broad audience.

All films can still be watched until 28 January next, after which the service for consumers will stop. Ximon does hope to transfer the catalogue to another provider, so the films and series will be available to the public again soon.