Amazon in Talks to Support UV (1 Viewer)

From Home Media Magazine:Amazon is reportedly in talks with three major studios about selling digital movies with UltraViolet functionality — the cloud-based system backed by all the major Hollywood studios except Disney.Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group are in talks with Amazon to offer UV-compatible digital titles that could be accessed on any UV-compatible media device, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited sources familiar with the situation.Currently, digital movies purchased on Amazon are stored in the e-commerce behemoth’s proprietary cloud-based platform. Amazon already sells major studio packaged-media releases with UltraViolet functionality. But with Hollywood pushing higher-margin digital movie sales, having Amazon on board would give a significant boost to electronic sellthrough and give added competition to Apple iTunes, which does not offer UV-compatible titles.With studios offering some title via electronic sellthrough weeks ahead of their disc availability, digital sales increased 37% in the first half of 2014 to $671 million, according to DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group.Notably, Universal parent Comcast last year launched the cable industry’s first digital movie store through its Xfinity platform. The launch was seen as a huge boost to electronic sellthrough sales despite the fact the platform also does not offer UV-compatible titles.Representatives from the studios and Amazon were not immediately available for comment.A representative from the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), which oversees UltraViolet, declined comment but did say registered UV user accounts are approaching 20 million.

Finally!!! this would be great news for those of us, like myself who like open formats and shy away from walled garden approaches (like itunes). Now if we can just get a launch date on the CFF that would be nice.

Towergrove,Since I posted that I read a couple of articles that contained some interesting nuggets of info. When I have more time I'll find the articles to link/quote but my paraphrasing will have to do for now...1) Amazon is strangely negotiating with only Sony, Warner, and Universal for UV. I have no idea what that means, but it certainly seems to fly in the face of the promises of UV...2) In an interview with a Disney exec about digital sales he said how the CFF was once thought of as a downloading thing, but they now only see it as a streaming thing...

Patrick Donahue said:

Towergrove,Since I posted that I read a couple of articles that contained some interesting nuggets of info. When I have more time I'll find the articles to link/quote but my paraphrasing will have to do for now...1) Amazon is strangely negotiating with only Sony, Warner, and Universal for UV. I have no idea what that means, but it certainly seems to fly in the face of the promises of UV...2) In an interview with a Disney exec about digital sales he said how the CFF was once thought of as a downloading thing, but they now only see it as a streaming thing...

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Patrick thats interesting because at a recent conference there was talk that the main focus is now also on the stream portion of ultraviolet. I also believe that doesn't mean they are abandoning the download portion or the CFF but they are doing more with the streaming portion because as Ive read in a recent interviews with Mitch Singer the streaming portion of the purchase is used more and is more popular. If you have a link to the informaton about the Disney exec comments I would love to take a read. I wonder why Disney would be commenting on CFFs when they dont support UV as a studio or were you refering to Mitch Singer a former Sony exec?

Amazon be in negotiations with just the big three is no surprise to me. The other studios will follow once the agreements are established with the bigger ones.

Interesting Mitch Singer Quote:

“Maybe UltraViolet ultimately becomes that platform,” Singer said.
UltraViolet’s common file format at first concentrated on downloads, but now is also focusing on streaming. He told the audience that creating disruptive technology is “very challenging.”
“Instead of trying to force it [the service is now aiming to] organically grow,” said Singer. “I think it’s the right thing to do.”
The concept of walled gardens, in which consumers lose their content when they leave a service, is in trouble, he said.
“How do you win if you ask the consumer to buy everything again from you?” Singer asked. “I think the consumer will have to have the confidence that the things they buy, the things they own, they can take it with them when they go.”

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http://homemediamagazine.com/streaming/digital-media-event-ponders-future-business-consumers-34335

^ Yep, you're right. The article I read was a report on the same issue, and while it did feature quotes from Disney that point was made by Singer

Patrick Donahue said:

^ Yep, you're right. The article I read was a report on the same issue, and while it did feature quotes from Disney that quote came from Singer

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If you can find the article please forward to me I am very interested in hearing what the Disney folks have to say. It seems that Digital HD or Ultraviolet or whatever flavour it is being called is starting to ramp up, another article:

“It’s the eco-system, stupid”... to misquote a phrase from political elections long gone by.
Approximately 12 million to 15 million consumers in the United States buy digital video to own, while more than 100 million consumers still regularly buy DVDs and Blu-ray Discs.
But those scales are shifting.
According to DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, consumer spending on discs dropped 8% in the first half of 2014 to $3.3 billion, compared with the first half of 2013.
While electronic sellthrough enjoyed a 37% jump in the period, growing to $671 million, this gain was far short of making up the declining physical dollars. Fortunately, subscription streaming revenue is growing too, albeit with lower margins.
As spending shifts from physical to digital, two things are clear. First, it’s vital that the overall video industry sustains purchase-to-own as a viable long-term behavior. If the video industry follows what happened in music, tens of millions of buyers will forever abandon their purchase behavior. While people still consume more music than ever, the number of actual buyers is a fraction of the past, and profitable revenue models remain elusive for most.

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http://homemediamagazine.com/opinion/why-you-need-be-land-grab-digital-video-buyers

And on the topic of CFF and downloading/streaming - I took a survey for Disney Movies Anywhere this morning to earn some extra rewards points (enough to get me a free copy of The Help on blu!) and I thought it was interesting that a line of questioning was about how much I preferred to watch downloaded content vs. streaming content, whether I knew how to download a movie and store on a hard drive, etc...

Patrick Donahue said:

And on the topic of CFF and downloading/streaming - I took a survey for Disney Movies Anywhere this morning to earn some extra rewards points (enough to get me a free copy of The Help on blu!) and I thought it was interesting that a line of questioning was about how much I preferred to watch downloaded content vs. streaming content, whether I knew how to download a movie and store on a hard drive, etc...

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Thats interesting! BTW.. The Help is excellent on Blu Ray. Congrats on your reward!

Patrick Donahue said:

And on the topic of CFF and downloading/streaming - I took a survey for Disney Movies Anywhere this morning to earn some extra rewards points (enough to get me a free copy of The Help on blu!) and I thought it was interesting that a line of questioning was about how much I preferred to watch downloaded content vs. streaming content, whether I knew how to download a movie and store on a hard drive, etc...

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Thought this was an interesting quote from the Disney Anywhere website. Maybe they are getting ready to add downloads to their service because they dont right now:

Currently, downloading is not offered through the Disney Movies Anywhere website.

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http://www.disneymoviesanywhere.com/support#136

I would love to put together a HTF chat with some execs from these companies (and maybe Thomas K. Arnold from Home Media Magazine), just like we did in the early days of DVD and Blu. There are so many questions and so much debate about "going digital" that it would be great to clear the air, so to speak. Like the elephant in the room - if I buy a UV title, is it going to disappear at some point? I love it personally, but as they say, you need those early adopters on board, and places like HTF is where we are...

Patrick Donahue said:

I would love to put together a HTF chat with some execs from these companies (and maybe Thomas K. Arnold from Home Media Magazine), just like we did in the early days of DVD and Blu. There are so many questions and so much debate about "going digital" that it would be great to clear the air, so to speak. Like the elephant in the room - if I buy a UV title, is it going to disappear at some point? I love it personally, but as they say, you need those early adopters on board, and places like HTF is where we are...

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Thats an excellent idea. I wonder how this we could do this? These questions are holding up adoption of UV and other like formats and services.

I wonder if the best thing to do is instead of a chat to drum up some questions that everybody might have and do an e-mail interview or sorts with some uppity ups at some studios or DECE. I certainly would be willing to do the legwork but it would be helpful to be able to do it in the name of HTF and I wouldn't of course do that without permission.

This week;

[*]Amazon leak
[*]Tesco announcement
[*]Wal-Mart's Insta-Watch announced
[/list]
These come almost in concert just on the cusp of the start of the Holiday shopping season.

This seems to be coordinated. I am not normally into nefarious conspiracy theories, but this time it just seems like too much of a coincidence.

What is the Tesco announcement?

2nd largest retailer in the world, covering all of the UK.Their Blingbox is now a UV store front offering a similar service to the Wal-Mart INSTA-WATCH.

I had to look up Instawatch, the way you talked about it made it sound like Walmart had opened a second UV store, which would be dumb.
http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/walmart-launches-instawatch-to-increase-digital-downloads-from-discs-1201330286/

This is actually pretty smart, and yet dumb at the same time. Smart in that an App scanning your receipt saving you from typing in codes is great, and I'm assuming that leaves you with the code in the box you can sell off to someone else, tho I guess they could somehow uniquely identify the actual individual disk you buy, but that would be adding one more creepy level onto the already creepy system...

Dumb in that it continues to add features to Vudu that aren't tied to your UV account as a whole. At some point you UV supporters are going to have to decide which is more important: pimping out Vudu and supporting Walmart or insisting that the UV service itself ensures parity between storefronts and that a title purchased on one storefront will be playable across the entire ecosystem.

I'm actually quite disapointed that many of the headlines referred to this as a new service from Wal-mart, as if vudu didn't exist before. It should have been referred to as a new feature for vudu. But I guess the news headlines will drive new traffic to vudu for those people who hadn't heard of it, so that's a good thing.

I disagree with your second point. I actually think it's great that UV service providers are adding features that differentiate themselves from other providers. That's one of the many benefits of the UV ecosystem. Your movies are not tied to one vendor, and if a vendor adds a feature, or has a user interface you like better than the one you bought it from, you can still access your movies.

The only drawback is that not all movies come with UV rights, yet. You have to start somewhere. When vudu first launched UV capability, there was 3500 UV titles. Now there is more than 12,000, and it continues to grow. Eventually, most titles will have UV rights. With MGM finally adding rights, and Amazon about to jump on board, that number will likely grow pretty quickly.

You have to start somewhere.

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I guess this comes down to the heart of my frustration with UV as a whole Josh. No you don't. You have to start at GREAT. Not at crappy, which is where they started. Not at creepy. Not at has potential. Not even at good. We have very good walled gardens.

If you want to build something better than the walled gardens you HAVE to start at great. And great for the customer. Not for the vendors. Not for the studios. Not for what "It will be great in a few years". We're 3 years down the road and we still aren't at great.

Great means you are sure your collection will survive the collapse of a vendor. That you can buy with minimal frustration and without multiple logins for studios, vendors and the system itself. Great means you know they are thinking about you, the buyer. Great means you are delighted that they thought of the details before you had a chance to even consider them.

Right now the only UV vendor that matters is Vudu. You have traded one walled garden for another, and if you think Walmart is a better gatekeeper than Apple is, well there's no sense trying to argue with that level of crazy =) The only way that changes is if your purchases are tied to the central system, not to Vudu. Anything else is just continuing to make Walmart the king of the ring.

Your comment is very condecending. Who decided that for a product or service to be successful that it has to start out as great? A lot of products and services that are very successful now, did not start out as great. Even some of Apple's products that people think are great did not start out that way. Here are a few examples.

[*]The first two iPhones weren't widely adored until the 3GS came out, because they didn't support 3G
[*]Apple's iCloud, which is pretty great now, was pretty terrible when it first began its life as MobileMe.
[*]The Mac OS was mediocre until OS X
[*]The Android OS was nowhere near great until Jellybean came out
[*]Microsoft Windows was not any good until Windows 95
[*]The Internet itself was terribly slow and many people didn't start using it until speeds reached broadband. 2 Mbps.
[*]When Netflix first started streaming, it was slow, low quality, and didn't have the huge catalog it does now.
[/list]

And tons of other examples I could list.

Maybe for you, everything you use has to be perfect, but for the rest of the world, we will settle for "good, but room for improvement, as long as it keeps improving.