Dutch Filmworks was founded in 1998 as a video distributor, mainly focussing on new and catalogue movies. In 2000 the company began to expand the business into animation and family entertainment as well as television series. 2002 was a crucial year. Firstly the movie business was transformed from only DVD/video distribution to the exploitation of all rights. Television sales and other distribution means were added to retail sales. In 2005 this also resulted in launching our own theatrical division.

In 2002, DFW launched a separate division focussing on documentaries and special interest DVDs. The ambition was to become the market leader within 3 to 4 years. This division was called House of Knowledge. Within 3 years HOK succeeded in its ambition by achieving a market share of 20% in 2005 and 26% in 2007 – this was across all documentaries in the special interest genre sold in the Netherlands. HOK is by far the biggest distributor in this area and has strategic relationships with A&E, History Channel, Granada, National Geographic, Discovery Channel and Gaiam.

Following this success, HOK expanded its business into direct marketing and publishing. HOK has its own webshop, broadcasts infomercials on television channels and distributes titles for mail-order through newspapers, catalogues and magazines. The publishing side is focussing on partworks (magazines and DVDs), non-fictional books and magazines. One of the most popular properties is the brand 'What is What' which is known in over 50 countries.

Finally in 2007, HOK decided to launch into the international marketplace, through licensing rights and establishing distribution partners globally.

Quality
House of Knowledge is a quality brand.

Popular
A line-up of popular titles that appeal to a broad audience.

Recognizable
Recognizable packaging and marketing.

Concepts
Products are marketed by recognizable quality concepts.

Accessible
Both by subject matter as well as easily obtainable.

As a multimedia publisher of popular titles with a strong content basis, the chosen format for each product is entirely flexible.

• DVDs
• Magazines
• Books
• Part-works (magazine and dvd)
• Video-on-Demand
• Cross-platform concepts

House of Knowledge has a well experienced sales team, with excellent relationships in the traditional and non-traditional markets. As each product and/or concept needs an individual strategy, a number of different ways of distribution are used to reach the HOK consumer.

Traditional retail
High priced and quality DVDs, selected books and part-works are distributed through the traditional retail channels, specializing in DVDS and books/magazines.

Non-traditional retail
Supermarkets, gas stations, drug stores, etc. are excellent channels for magazines and part-works and for dvds in the lower price bracket (budget DVDs).

Direct response
Through television commercials on channels such as Discovery and National Geographic, high-priced quality boxsets are sold directly to the consumer.

Webshop
House of Knowledge has its own webshop: www.hokshop.com with more than 3,000 products across a variety of different genres: documentaries, factual, entertainment, television series and lifestyle.

 

Discovery Channel is the leading global natural world media company with brands such as Animal Planet and travel channel.


National Geographic offers an exciting mix of adventure, science, natural history and human interest stories. Its series 'Explorer', as well as its land-mark, long-running specials and giant screen films have won over 1000 industry awards. National Geographic has a dedicated natural history network of renowned scientists and filmmakers whose innovative work is showcased in their documentaries.


A&E is a joint venture between the Hearst Corp., ABC inc. and NBC. They are involved in various multimedia activities and are broadcasters of The History Channel and The Biography Channel.


Founded in 1995, it already has more than 125 million subscriptions. It produces hundreds of documentaries, many of which have won awards.


As a part of A&E, The Biography Channel won several Emmy awards. It has a wide range of biographies on celebrities, religious figures, government leaders etc.


Gaiam was created as a life-style media company with the vision that, given a choice, people would choose a lifestyle that is healthy and life enhancing for themselves, their families and the earth.