2017 BASE Awards Honor British Home Video Industry

9 Jun, 2017 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Universal Pictures U.K. named top packaged-media distributor

Universal Pictures U.K., Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment U.K., Entertainment One, Sky Store and retailer HMV earned multiple awards at the 2017 British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) Awards June 9 in London.

The annual event showcases innovation and achievement in video, acting as a benchmark across the home entertainment industry. About 1,000 industry representatives and leaders attended the event, including major and independent distributors, retailers, content owners and agencies.

“The BASE Awards has once again been a fantastic success. The category is continuously generating fresh and engaging content and campaigns to satisfy U.K. audiences and it’s vital that this work is recognized and celebrated,” CEO Liz Bales said in a statement.

Universal won Distributor of the Year after securing 18.5% market share of the 2016 retail disc market by value. The distributor also earned Campaign of the Year for Special Interest for stand-up comedy Romesh Ranganathan: Irrational Live, and Campaign of the Year for Film — Non-theatrical” for documentary House of Flying Arrows.

Title of the Year went to Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. BASE cited Disney’s special marketing for the April 18, 2016, release that resulted in more than 1 million combined DVD and Blu-ray Discs sold in the first week — or 61% of the movie’s total U.K. sales. By the end of last year, the movie had sold 2.05 million discs worth $31.6 million (£24.8 million).

Entertainment One won Campaign of the Year for Children for animated title Stick Man. It also earned Campaign of the Year for Film — Up to £1 Million Box Office for Oasis doc Supersonic.

Planet Earth II secured Campaign of the Year for TV for BBC Worldwide, while the re-release of Donnie Darko secured Arrow Films Campaign of the Year for Catalogue Single Product.

Sony took Campaign of the Year for Catalogue Multiple Product for the Criterion Collection. It also won the inaugural Outstanding Innovation Award for its Affinity Ranging Solution that incorporates product recommendation in a bricks-and-mortar environment.

BASE said retailers using the software have seen sales increase up to 25%, adding it could change the way discs are sold in stores.

“It has the potential to lead to a significant increase in impulse purchases of catalog product,” stated the trade group.

Other entries in this category included Disney’s “Big Sleeve Edition,” “The Official Film Download Chart” from The Official Charts Co., and “Making DVD Special Again” from Universal.

Sky Store earned Digital Retailer Initiative of the Year for its Christmas voucher initiative, as well as Digital Retailer of the Year. Venerable retailer HMV (His Master’s Voice) again earned Retail Store of the Year and Physical Retailer of the Year Initiative for its HMV Hollywood Classics Range.

BASE announced it would include digital sales for Distributor and Title of the Year categories in future awards.

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