Piper Jaffray's Media & Entertainment Summary

Piper Jaffray paid a visit to China to view the filmed entertainment market and walked away with these comments: "The broader filmed entertainment market in China is booming. Incentives to encourage local film production, foreign co-production, film distribution, and exhibition are all underway and showing clear signs of progress. Even efforts to more actively protect intellectual property rights seem to be showing momentum. Screen growth is the most obvious area of growth, increasing from 4,100 screens in 2008 to an estimated 6,500+ by the end of 2012. Overwhelmingly, these are digital screens with high 3D penetration utilizing 'silver screens,' putting RealD and master Image at a clear advantage over Dolby and XpanD. We believe 3D screens could triple from 2009 levels by 2012, reaching an estimated 2,200 3D screens. Substantial numbers of local films are also being created in 3D. While over the long term this could benefit much of the US-based filmed entertainment ecosystem, we see IMAX (OW), RLD (OW), and BTN (not rated) as particularly well positioned." Piper Jaffray's current picks are: CBS Corporation CBS $15.71 Carmike Cinemas CKEC $7.62 Cinemark Holdings CNK $15.72 The Walt Disney Co. DIS $34.90 Discovery Communications DISCA $43.37 DreamWorks Animation DWA $33.72 IMAX Corporation IMAX $15.96 Lions Gate Entertainment LGF $7.38 National CineMedia NCMI $17.67 Regal Entertainment RGC $12.42 Scripps Networks Interactive SNI $46.50