http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/five-hollywoo...
It looks like the studios finally grew a brain about the fact that the fractured digital landscape with buying movies electronically was actually hurting them.
Walt Disney Studios
Sony Picture Entertainment
20th Century Fox
Universal Studios
Warner Bros. Entertainment
Have all come under the system Disney had set up Disney Movies Anywhere, now known as Movies Anywhere, The only big holdout is Paramount who is in talks. But basically if you have a movie from those studios in iTunes, VUDU, Amazon, or Google Play. They will all be linked and able to access them from any of those services.
So we no longer need 3rd party apps to access our content from those services on unsupported Devices if the use 1 service you can get to your content. So they may have realized if people can get access to what they have purchased easier then maybe piracy will go down, or this is cheaper than maintaining several different systems and ecosystems. UltraViolet will probably go the way of the Dodo, and this new system will replace it about time.
Comments
okay---one person
okay---one person in Hollywood grew a brain??
I am sure this idea was from a fresh day one college grad that was untainted??
But as one that works there all the time---the ones that run this place are stupid and brainless
We had a VP at Sony pics one time that tried to have an original idea---it was messy and needed a bucket to clean up--but on the bright side we got a new executive out of the mess!
Proud member of the Whateley Academy Drow clan/collective
so did he move up or get replaced?
Did the VP's new idea work out or did it fail and they replace him?
I know Hollywood does not want to change, like with Movie Theaters ticket sales for judging success or failure. Sadly the theaters have done it to them selves. Too often they will not ask a parent with unruly children to leave, and it drives others to just not go and wait till they can enjoy the movie in the peace of there own home. Or they will combine a restruant and theater and serve real food while you watch the movie. But they get complacent and the experience becomes a chore. Also they release too many movies a new one every week. and We the consumers have to choose which one to go see and which one to wait and see on disk, stream, or buy digitally.
I know they are complacent in Hollywood and do not like change, like the super hero movie formula, you have to conform to the formula new original ideas are bad. And they no longer pay to create the movies them selves, they get outside investors to flip the bill and they want a a sure thing on a return of investment. If theaters were not opening up in China and other parts of Asia for the first time I feel the Movie Theater would Die in 5 to 10 years at most.
Also its new people who are outsiders who often have a new ideas on how to do things, they see how it is done and ask why can it not be done a different way. They do not have a dog in the fight so there is no harm in there minds of looking for a way to make things better.
"Cortana is watching you!"
Nice ideal
Nice, but for my way of thinking. Way to late and to little.
Media got to be at prohibitive price (for profit Now!) for way to long. Quality to often way to tin.
Recording Industry should have seen the problem way back when the cassette tape was the top "civilian" recording media. We already copy records to do mix tape of acceptable music. As records often only got on or three good songs.
Then came CD burner and MP3. The industry try the court system, anti-pirate and the like, but never try to work the root of the problem.
So Audio "piracy" grew, technology grew. Piracy jump to the other arts form; text, video....
Industry goes to fight themselves with VHS/Beta type of war of non-compatibility. Pirates with technology bypass that and bring unifying illegal copy.
Industry start to wake-up.
OK call me cynical if you like, I know I am at least partly.
Peace to All tmf
P.S.: Sorry, I do not intend to start a war or anything like that.
You are correct
The only time The entertainment industry ever backs a single horse is when they admit defeat and all start using the winning standard.
It happened with The VHS and Beta max war, one of the reasons VHS won is Sony would not let the Porn industry use Beta, So they used VHS. And VHS won because video stores found it easier to just carry a single format and since the adult section was VHS, Beta lost in the rest of the store.
Then came the HD-DVD vs Bluray, HD-DVD was cheaper to make than Bluray, but BluRay had more room for growth, and since the pron industry chose BluRay, it went to Bluray to win and then it became the defacto standard.
The industry has never been at the leading edge when it came to new standards they always want to maintain the status quo, until you beat them over the head enough times that it is either change or die. and the Musci industry fought MP3 hard until the iPod made it a back it or die move. Then the same happened with digital video content, for years people traded and downloaded digital rips of DVD's and TV shows to watch on there computers, it was a hasel to carry all those DVD's around. Apple again was becoming popular in this area, and Hollywood felt that apple had to much power over the music industry and created UltraViolet it was a flawed setup from the get go, no unified front as it were you had to watch your digital content with the service or device that it was supported on and non supported all of them. The brick and mortar store has been dieing here for years not even 4k-Bluray could save it. Digital is king not better quality but easier to use, and you do not have to worry about a piece of dust scratching the disk and making scenes unreadable. Then DIsney who had never backed one side only created a way to access our content on Ultra-violet or itunes with a single site to put your code in and encouraged you to do it by rewarding people with points for doing that could be exchanged for other items. they then got amazon and google the last remaining independed retailers for digital to support there way. Now if you bought 1 disney movie at company A you could watch it on company B's app or device. And now the other studios probably had a choice join or die. They have chosen to Join so far it will be interesting to see what happens with the TV front on content next.
The entertainment industry always moves with a fad but never wants to change how they make there money until forced at gun point like changing will hurt them. Probably they were always too greedy and realized that if they had to change they had to spend money to do it, and that would mean changing when they don't want too.
"Cortana is watching you!"
IMO I think Blue-ray won via
IMO I think Blue-ray won via Sony backing it and releasing PS2 gaming systems with it enabled for free where as MStupid wanted to charge for the HD system as a add-on that killed sales!
Proud member of the Whateley Academy Drow clan/collective
it helped yes.
but look at the PS4 now, the easiest way to get a 4K Bluray player is to buy a XBox One S, and that is how it is being sold n Japan now. Sony is not putting a 4K drive in there consoles at least not yet.\
The reason the XBox 360 only had DVD, is that HD-DVD and Bluray were not ready for it launch. but since the PS3 launched a year later they were ready. Steve Balmer made a lot of bad calls at MS, but there new CEO is more about innovate or die again and it shows. Also from a Tech standpoint HD-DVD was never a good idea, Bluray always had more potential. I just wish they had stayed with the original Bluray design which put a protective cartridge around the disk, that resembled an old SCSI CD, it would have aloud data to be not only multi-layered but multi-sided on the disks. But it was not well received, people were too used to the CD/DVD for factor, and the players would have need an adapter to play DVD's.
Bluray won but it will beshort lived, the USB dive and the cloud are really winning now. Since Brick and mortar stores are fading away.
"Cortana is watching you!"
Not all movies are showing up
Not all movies are showing up from these studios that I own. Itunes is the worst in thos regard. I have movies the app says I own (LOTR:FOTR, gravity) that do not show up in itunes. I also have to search for some movies in the app to watch that show as owned on amazon. Further, I have to ask the question if there is a upgrade to HD for movies added via itunes (I believe only 2010 falls into this category. DMA did a free upgrade to HD. Conversely, Star Wars VII does not show up in my movies but has a play option and I own via itunes.). Amazon shows 2010 owned but not what version which makes me assume HD. Assuming Paramount joins in, I will be VERY HAPPY
As for ultravilot? This service is redemption codes in one place linked to digital platforms that are not MS. It is cheaper to maintain a single UI and have movies stored there linked to distributors than have a login ID for five different websites and five different services which may link with nobody. Ultravilot will go away once ALL companies utilizing it go this method (it is not just Hollywood studios using it) decide to go with this new distribution method.