Translation from PR puff piece into English
UltraViolet service offering digital locker of films and TV planned for UK:
A consortium including Warner Bros, Sony Pictures and Fox are backing the UK launch of a new service that aims to revolutionise home entertainment, and cut piracy, by offering consumers a digital locker of films and TV shows they can watch on any device.
“We’ve finally managed to cut through the tangled rights agreements which we invented. As you’ll probably have noticed, even DVD rental services suffer from having the rug pulled from under them by studios — and let’s not get started on the ever-fluctuating catalogues of LOVEFiLM and the iTunes Store… what can we say? We saw what the music industry was doing and thought ‘hey, that’s a great idea’.”
The UK is the second market to launch the UltraViolet service, a digital library for films and TV shows, which gives consumers the rights to “buy once, play anywhere” on as many as 12 devices.
“This is nothing like PlaysForSure™.”
UltraViolet’s backers – 75 companies as varied as Tesco, Samsung, Nokia, Sky and LoveFilm – claim their open system has the edge over more restricted services offered by Apple and Disney.
“No, really, it’s nothing like PlaysForSure™.”
Completely coincidentally: conspicuously missing from the list of “backers” are… Apple and Disney.
No word on how it compares to other “restricted” services such as ordering a DVD from Amazon (also missing from the list, I believe) and ripping it.
When a consumer buys a DVD or Blu-ray disc of the title they will get a code they can use to download or stream a digital version of the film or TV show and build up a virtual locker.
“Not only is it nothing like PlaysForSure™, but it’s also nothing like Disney DVD Digital Copies, either.”
The content can be viewed on practically any device from any manufacturer and up to five family members can be added to an account.
“practically any device from any manufacturer [citation needed]”
“If consumers buy a movie or TV show they should be able to use it in any way they want,” said Mark Teitell, general manager of DECE, the body representing the consortium backing UltraViolet.
“Any approved way that they want, on any approved device.”
“This allows consumers to buy enduring rights to a piece of content, like an internet-based version of a proof of purchase, that they can then watch pretty much anywhere they want.”
“pretty much”
Warner Bros is the first content owner to unveil its plans for UltaViolet (UV), with the launch of Final Destination 5 on 26 December being the first UV-enabled title to be made available to consumers in the UK.
Be still my beating heart.
Chris Law, managing director of Warner Bros Television and Digital Distribution UK, said the concept could be summed up as a “buy once, play anywhere” service.
“We are offering consumers a simple and more compelling way to purchase, manage, access and share their movie collections digitally,” Law added.
More compelling than…?
Ultaviolet is intended to be a complimentary digital service to existing video-on-demand offerings. Last week Tesco announced it is to start offering digital copies of movies for free when customers buy a DVD through its Blinkbox service. However, the company, a partner in DECE, said it is completely “complimentary” with UV which it intends to launch next year.
“Tesco’s service, available right now, does pretty much exactly the same thing.”
“We are introducing people to the concept to get them used to it before UltraViolet arrives,” said Michael Comish, chief executive of Blinkbox.
“The legal team drawing up the agreements to permit customers of Blinkbox to migrate their purchases into an UltraViolet-friendly “digital locker” are crying themselves to sleep on their pillows and blankets woven out of bank notes.”
Robert Price, UK managing director for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, said he believed the service would develop to enable consumers to “browse digital versions of movies from multiple studios just as easily as we currently browse our Blu-ray and DVD libraries on our shelves at home”.
“Wouldn’t it be great if people if people could browse for things they wanted to buy, then buy them, then have them, and not have to worry about things like DRM servers being switched off or well-known brands going out of business? Yeah, we’re not doing that.”
