Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government can take to protect the exclusivity window that cinemas have for new film releases.

The Government recognises the important cultural and economic value of cinemas, which is why we are pleased to have supported the sector during the pandemic with £33.8 million of Culture Recovery Fund awards and our generous package of pan-economy measures.

In film distribution, an exclusivity window is the period of time for which a film is only available in cinemas before it is released more widely, such as on a video-on-demand service. The Government encourages industry to work together on the agreements regarding exclusivity windows and does not intend to intervene.