Hollywood has been beating its head against a wall trying to coax consumers back into a buying mindset in the age of Redbox and Netflix. Miramax CEO Mike Lang says that if studios fail to get consumers on board with digital locker technology, the future looks bleak.
During a Q&A session during entertainment market gathering MIPCOM, Lang discussed the importance of UltraViolet, a joint digital locker effort backed by many major studios and electronics manufacturers that rolls out this fall. UltraViolet allows consumers to watch content they have purchased from participating retailers on devices such as Blu-ray players, set-top boxes, computers, tablets and smart phones. Content is stored remotely and be accessible via a free UltraViolet account.
Says Lang:
“As an industry, we really have to believe it . . . We really don’t have choice. If the home entertainment business as we know today, in terms of the transaction business, goes away, that’s not good for anyone in this room.”
Lang says that he hopes UltraViolet will provide consumers with a simple, easy-to-use service for digital downloads. Said Lang:
“It’s very difficult for the consumer to know that when they buy something that it works on any device . . . It’s either tied into an Apple ecosystem or best of luck trying to make it work.”
Lang cites Netflix as an example of a integrated service that’s compatible with a wide array of devices:
“Clearly, if we can create a digital locker experience that is as easy for the consumer and interoperable, then at least [it would be] an opportunity,”
Is UltraViolet, which Lang apparently feels is the last, best hope for Hollywood’s movie sales, going to take off? Will you be participating in the service, or do you feel that today’s movie rental options are too compelling (and cost-effective) to entice you back into a buying mode?
(via Home Media Magazine)
The best bet for the video industry is to go back in time 10 years and convince their younger selves that owning a video means actually owning it. If I own a DVD I should be able to rip it, burn it, convert it to play on my iPod, and stream it over the internet to a friend’s house. I should not have to buy the special iPod version, buy it again on Blu Ray, rent it from iTunes so I can show it to a friend, or anything like that. And now, they want us to buy it AGAIN for UltraViolet.
That ship has sailed, and UltraViolet is a poor last-ditch effort. They made owning video too difficult, and we adapted around them.
I think he’s wrong on all counts. Look at Arrested Development. Not my favorite show but it’s producers are clever. The old system is dying but hasn’t given up yet. Rather than resort to it they have turned to two companies that are forward thinking, Netflix and Showtime. Their show will live on, they have more freedom with it, and those involved make money.
Miramax on the other hand is looking back. UV is just retail sales with a new twist. It will still be overpriced and locked down with time windows and most likely black out windows even on purchases (they enforce that on Amazon which is already a purchase so why not.)
Mirimax will die, HBO will suffer unless they wake up, and Showtime may for the first time in decades have unprecedented growth.
When I buy a DVD/BD/digital pack, I just chuck the limited digitial download code. To use it I have to install some malware on my PC and that is not about to happen. Disney used to do it with auto load DVDs that popped up an installer when all I wanted to do was watch the stupid movie.
Give me physical media any day and cut the cord from the studios who try to dictate that you never really ‘own’ what you pay for. Besides, when was the last time you sat down and watched your entire collection start to finish? It will never happen. It’s just too big. So really it amounts to what it is: just a collection of good times and memories, and if I feel the itch to watch an old movie I bought, I dust it off and play it without asking the studio if I can.
The worst part of the digital copy is the quality they force on you. On a scale with all things being average you have BR > DVD > Laserdisc > VHS > and a notch or two down is the digital copy on a physical disc. That’s on a disc, they didn’t have to pay internet usage. I can only imagine what they will offer when it comes to actual downloaded content.
If they gave options for those in need of HD space or on older machines it would be one thing, but the DC that came with a Blu Ray was absolute poor.
Sgt. Carter – the studios are a little odd in what they want. They hate true rentals. They seem to want us to buy content that acts more like a rental, but at purchase prices. Kind of like Microsoft doesn’t sell Windows, they license it. Of course my copy of XP will work in 100 years assuming I could keep this machine going somehow (or alt least certain parts of the motherboard as far as I know). The studios have enforced some strange rules with Amazon and that has soured people beyond repair on buying digital content without guarantees. When my purchased content can be taken away to give HBO a nice month of ratings, that pisses me off beyond reason. Luckily Amazon refunded my purchase. Try getting the big studios to be as nice.
Ignoring the fact that this is DRM controlled and not all studios are involved which are huge downsides, what about all the movies already released that we own? So do I have to pay some huge fee to be able “license” digital films? They need to get this going already. If I can watch HD qualify movies @ a fair price or included with movies I will use this. I am also one who is tired of all the different formats and am glad they are trying to allow use to use our content on mulitple devices.
Yes, Hollywood would love to break the ownership habit. They would love consumers get used to the idea of limited time rentals/sales. They hate that the content ends up on physical disks that people can lend out, sell to other people second hand, or even pirate. A digital locker would make these activities more difficult to impossible. From a consumer standpoint, it is a non-starter. The idea of giving up your possession of the media leads to restricted access, dropouts, blackouts, neccessity to use band width to watch movies, etc. While unlikely, a server could crash and your content could be lost. More realistic is the possibilty/probablilty of a company going out of business taking your access to your content with it. It’s only a matter of time before that happens.
No thank you – I will simply continue to convert my collection to files that I can store on a media access device that can be plugged into a TV. I will store backups on hard drives and keep my DVDs as additional archival copies. I will be able to watch my large collection of movies at any time without reliance on an outside entity.
I recognize that there may be a day when physical dvds are no longer available, but I would hope that a system evolves similar to music/e-book where content is in the physical ownership of the consumer rather than some faceless corporation that really doesn’t care about consumers. In my opinion Ultraviolet will never catch on. It will be a cold day in hell before I use it.
I’ll be the first to admit it – I haven’t looked into it yet, actually this article is the first I’d heard of it. But it’ll fail.
I’m a Mac user. Will it work on my choice of platform? Probably not. Even after Apple rolled out the Digital Copy through iTunes a few years back, studios were still making DC’s of movies that were PC only. Sure, the Mac platform might be small, but what connects to it? iPods, iPhones, iPads – that’s your market.
Will the license be upgradeable? Apple upped the resolution on their music downloads and charged a small fee per song to upgrade. Is my “licensed” laserdisc copy of Star Wars entitlement to a free copy of the Blu Ray editions? Should be if I bought a license to the movie. But I’m sure I bought a license to play the movie on the laserdisc, right? No upgrades?
We really need to get this straightened out. When I buy a book, I buy a book. When I buy a movie, I buy a movie. I’ll get a Blu Ray Combo Pack if offered – BD, DVD and DC. I’ll pay the extra $5 for clearing my conscience should I decide to rip the movie to my media center.