Many Sundance Film Festival panel discussions this year have focused on new ways films can be distributed digitally to audiences, whether through video on demand, over the Internet or on mobile devices, such as cell phones and iPods.

Of two dozen panels this week at Sundance, seven delved into emerging technologies that put movies in the palm of your hand, on your computer or your TV screen. For independent filmmakers working on shoestring budgets, these low-cost alternatives make sense.

"The revolution in distribution has begun for independent filmmakers," said Peter Broderick of Paradigm, a film distribution consulting firm. "Old rules don't apply, but the old rulers don't know it yet."

David Hicks is a movie buff who sees the potential of viewing movies over different platforms.

Ever since Hicks and his wife had a baby two months ago, "I've gone to two movies," he said, grateful he has a home theater setup for DVDs and an iPod loaded with episodes of "24" and the summer blockbuster "Batman Begins."

The shift is painfully relevant for movie houses: 2005 box-office figures were down 5 percent, attendance 7 percent, according to Exhibitor Relations. And last year's decrease in revenue - down to $8.8 billion from $9.1 billion in 2004 - is one of the biggest on record.

Meanwhile, home video sales and rentals reached $24.3 billion last year, according to Digital Entertainment Group.

As a result, technology companies such as Sony are buying up studios (Columbia and MGM). Internet companies are making deals with content providers (Yahoo and Google) to deliver movies and TV shows to their customers. Apple, in particular, has made a splash in the video distribution market by making episodes of "Desperate Housewives" and "The Office" available to video iPod owners.

"We have now a kind of tidal wave of these strategic partnerships emerging - telcos, networks, Internet service providers - a kind of co-mingling," said Ian Calderan, Sundance Institute's director of Digital Initiatives. "Everyone agrees that standing in isolation doesn't work."

On other fronts, Disney President Robert Iger made waves when he said the window between a movie's theatrical release and DVD release should shrink. And video services such as Netflix are eclipsing even video stores in revenue by getting new movies to customers who use the Internet.

"Netflix was created on the notion that [film] distribution is broken," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for the Internet-based video rental service. "One in eight subscribers will see [Oscar-winning documentary] 'Born into Brothels' on Netflix. This is really unlocking the world for a film like that."

One movie testing the new distribution waters is by Sundance favorite Steven Soderbergh, the director who started his career with the festival smash "sex, lies and videotape" and also won an Oscar for the movie "Traffic."

Soderbergh will release a love story called "Bubble" simultaneously to 40 theaters (none in Salt Lake City), the DVD market and Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban's high definition TV network, HDNet. It is the first movie in a five-picture deal with Cuban, who owns the NBA's Dallas Mavericks.

"It's not an experiment. It's a response to what we think our customers want," Cuban, one of the movie's executive producers, told The Salt Lake Tribune. "I don't want to prove anything. I want to make my customers happy and make great movies."

While Hollywood is watching to see how "Bubble" does, Calderan doesn't think it will kill movie theaters. "When movies came out, everyone predicted the end of theater," he said. "But people like a collective community experience."

Hicks understands the appeal of a darkened theater.

"Seeing a movie on the big screen and with big surround sound - there is something to that," he said. "Having grown up with that, I'll always do that. But being able to download something on my iPod to watch at any time is great too."

Even Cuban, who made billions through an Internet video streaming business, believes movie theaters will be around "as long as babies cry and parents and teenagers need a break from each other.

"Theaters are no more at risk from home theaters than restaurants are from kitchens."

vince@sltrib.com