Leander Carell, managing director of the Halle company Nowtilus GmbH, lives in and for the future. Even though the word "now" is incorporated into the name of the company which he runs with Patrick Knippel and Steffen Reuter in the media centre of central Germany. But this doesn't just refer to today, rather the possibility of watching a film anytime, now or at any time. The concept is called Video on Demand (VOD). The product developed by the Halle-based company is called VOD-Box.

Leander Carell and his colleagues (programmers, editors and developers) use technology which makes other film storage mediums like video cassettes, DVDs or Blueray look old. "Blueray discs are the latest physical storage mediums for consumers“, says Carell. With the new technology you don't need a physical medium to be able to watch a film. All you need is a web supported device to request a film of your choice, any time, anywhere.

The company name Nowtilus also includes a little of the fictional submarine of the legendary Captain Nemo, who in the story by Jules Vernes, was sent on voyages to explore new worlds, says Carell explaining the choice of the peculiar name. Carell is currently exploring the possibilities that VOD could hold in the future. The future of VOD looks rosy for the 32-year-old Halle native and the company.

According to data of the Nuremburg Association for Customer Research, in 2000 the film distribution market was dominated by video cassettes. Only one percent of the films were lent out on DVD. Five years later the round discs had almost completely forced cassettes out of video rental shops and consumer electronic stores. "2015, five years from now“, says Carell assuredly, "the market will be dominated by VOD“. Indeed there will still be niches for conventional storage mediums but the market is dominated by digital distribution.

From 2009 to 2010 the turnover of the VOD market in Germany shot up by 252 percent. Large companies which use the Nowtilus product for online film distribution also contributed to this jump. This includes the important client, the electronics retailer Media-Markt, which has over 3000 films in its film library and wants to increase this number to 5000. Even the online version of Bild.de offers films on demand with the VOD-Box by Nowtilus, as well as the telephone company Alice or soon also the major Hollywood corporation Warner Brothers.

The company which was established in 2007 has invested millions in Halle/Saale. Meanwhile there is also a branch in Berlin. "A huge logistical network has been created. Rights are negotiated with film companies, licences with software providers and new technology with device manufacturers. Programmers are also employed abroad“, reports Leander Carell, who started his careers as a media trader at MDR (Central German Broadcasting) in Leipzig.

The business idea has also impressed investors. They made it possible for the ideas of the creative film makers to be realised. As well as individual private investors, SBG Sparkassen Beteiligungsgesellschaft Sachsen-Anhalt [Saxony-Anhalt Sparkassen Corporate Holding Division] and the Federal Investment and Holding Association have also been onboard indirectly.

The idea for the VOD Computer Software came to the company founders as producers of movies. Since 2003 the team around Leander Carell, Patrick Knippel and Steffen Reuter produced 15 movies for the international market with the company Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv during which time they worked with renowned scriptwriters, Oscar-nominated and award-winning actors and directors. Work on the latest German-Scandinavian co-production Simon was completed last year, reports Carell. For the screen adaptation of Marianne Fredriksson's book of the same name which sold almost four million copies worldwide, director Lisa Ohlin brought together well-known actors from Sweden and Germany, including the popular German actor Jan-Josef Liefers as a Jewish emigrant. Liefers also learned Swedish especially for this role. Carell announced that the film will premiere in autumn. Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv will also develop and produce further films. "We will continue to work together but now we don't just want to work with Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv to produce our own films, but also to ensure the distribution of thousands of films with Nowtilus“, explains Carell. "In the future we won't just earn revenue from our own films but also from films like Harry Potter“, says Carell.

Contact

Nowtilus Onlinevertriebsgesellschaft mbH
Leander Carell

Mitteldeutsches Multimediazentrum
Mansfelder Straße 56
06108 Halle/Saale

Fax: +49 (0) 345 4701348
Email: leander.ignore@nowtilus.tv

www.nowtilus.tv