Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

Disney is effectively building a parallel "vendor agnostic digital rights locker", at least as far as the consumer is concerned. Nothing prevents them from doing library sharing down the road, and I bet that's a fringe use case. As far as I can tell, consumers don't find anything about UV "unified" so far - large gaps in content availability, widely differing redemption methods, flaky D2D programs, etc. And the very last thing Disney needs to worry about is brand awareness.

I'm telling you, once they roll this out to several vendors and their quasi D2D services are matured, the public won't care at all that it's not UV. Yes, there are good reasons to consolidate to a single standard, but consumer pressure isn't really going to be one of them. With this move (or at least as they describe their plans), Disney can hold out for a good, long time.

Good points. DECE has 85 industry members though. When a consortium is formed to develop a standard, it is often like hearding cats. In the case of DECE, a backend Nustar data store was necessary which meant members needed to foot the bill to support the cost of the systems.

A similar consortium was formed around the technology which came to be known as Bluray.

LINK:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association

The DECE consortium has out of the gate, much more industry member support then the BRDA.

You could argue that Microsoft too had no need to add a Bluray player to their xbox one console. Yet, there it is.

[jp62278]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

Does anyone see any logic to what movies are available to stream? I don't use iTunes, but from what I can see from the DMR web interface (and relatively small sample set) it seems kinda random. In addition to what I've already been able to redeem through vudu, they added Toy Story 3 but not 1 or 2. Tron legacy, which I think came after TS3 (could be wrong) wasn't added either.

[MoWeb]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

Good points. DECE has 85 industry members though. When a consortium is formed to develop a standard, it is often like hearding cats. In the case of DECE, a backend Nustar data store was necessary which meant members needed to foot the bill to support the cost of the systems.

A similar consortium was formed around the technology which came to be known as Bluray.

LINK:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association

The DECE consortium has out of the gate, much more industry member support then the BRDA.

You could argue that Microsoft too had no need to add a Bluray player to their xbox one console. Yet, there it is.

I get what you're saying and your comments are always very intelligent and well thought out for the most part. With your Microsoft analogy were talking hardware here. It's obvious they had to use blu ray because there's no other optical drive in existence with that kind of capacity. They were also trying to avoid paying license fees to a competitor which is an understandable business decision. Digital content is a totally different animal because encoding isn't really a standard and anyone can have or create their own method.

You don't see the driving force of incentive for Disney to abandon their own efforts...Money/Profits and complete control. For one, Disney would never allow library sharing because that would drastically cut into the ridiculous profits they enjoy on their content. Just look at their blu ray sale prices. They are by far in some cases more expensive than anyone. I Am Number Four sells for $35.00 with DC at some retailers. Even their digital prices are in some cases much higher than other studios. They just raised prices again at Disney World, see a trend? Like Apple people pay what Disney wants and they don't even flinch. Joining Ultraviolet would mean they would lose some of those profits on their content as well as complete control because it's UV that holds your license for verification.

MattO made some very good points about Ultraviolet. When you really think about it without any bias, it's still in such a uncontrolled lack of consistency mess. I personally love Ultraviolet and the idea behind it, but I'm really getting tired of things like I can stream a movie on my Roku but not on a Tablet or PC. Having some blockbuster movies available on UV but others like Titanic are not and Paramount is a UV participant. If Ultraviolet content partners decided this is the future and actually went all in this would be a good start.

Redeeming UV codes should actually be done at Ultraviolet (since they handle the licences) instead of a multitude of streaming providers. This would eliminate the helter skelter confusion and problems redeeming codes (see Breaking Bad, yeah I know Sony's fault). Ultraviolet can't even properly handle accounts with large libraries let alone make Disney feel comfortable about the handling their digital content licenses.

I hope in the near future things progress but I'm actually starting to lose hope because I've gone through well over one year of UV problems that still exist. A customer service upgrade at Ultraviolet couldn't hurt.

DMA, I think is here to stay.

The opinions expressed here do not reflect the positions of Disney, Microsoft, Vudu, Ultraviolet, or its partners.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

MattO made some very good points about Ultraviolet. When you really think about it without any bias, it's still in such a uncontrolled lack of consistency mess. I personally love Ultraviolet and the idea behind it, but I'm really getting tired of things like I can stream a movie on my Roku but not on a Tablet or PC. Having some blockbuster movies available on UV but others like Titanic are not and Paramount is a UV participant. If Ultraviolet content partners decided this is the future and actually went all in this would be a good start.

I hope in the near future things progress but I'm actually starting to lose hope because I've gone through well over one year of UV problems that still exist. A customer service upgrade at Ultraviolet couldn't hurt.

DMA, I think is here to stay.

The opinions expressed here do not reflect the positions of Disney, Microsoft, Vudu, Ultraviolet, or its partners.

Without question, the UltraViolet / DECE initiative has been the most widely and fasted accepted distribution standard in the motion picture industry history for in-home media. You mention some titles unavailable. True. However, the ramp gradient for UV has been much higher then for VHS, DVD, or Bluray Disc. Bluray has been available for over a decade and there are still titles I can not get in that medium.

I do think you believe Disney is too powerful to accept DECE terms should they find it not in their interest and instead perpetually go it alone with a silo'ed version of digital distribution. IMHO, that is not the nature of the technology market. A new technology comes out. It goes through a process to see if it gains consumer acceptance. If so, there are standards adopted and it goes from there onto a level playing field.

I do not think anyone would suggest in-home streaming of digital content has become something soon to go away. On the contrary, it is becoming status quo. As such, the market is now into adopting a standard to distribute MPAA content in this medium. UV is the only vendor agnostic option.

sincerely,

[MoWeb]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

Without question, the UltraViolet / DECE initiative has been the most widely and fasted accepted distribution standard in the motion picture industry history for in-home media. You mention some titles unavailable. True. However, the ramp gradient for UV has been much higher then for VHS, DVD, or Bluray Disc. Bluray has been available for over a decade and there are still titles I can not get in that medium.

I do think you believe Disney is too powerful to accept DECE terms should they find it not in their interest and instead perpetually go it alone with a silo'ed version of digital distribution. IMHO, that is not the nature of the technology market. A new technology comes out. It goes through a process to see if it gains consumer acceptance. If so, there are standards adopted and it goes from there onto a level playing field.

I do not think anyone would suggest in-home streaming of digital content has become something soon to go away. On the contrary, it is becoming status quo. As such, the market is now into adopting a standard to distribute MPAA content in this medium. UV is the only vendor agnostic option.

sincerely,

I'm not nearly nor do I pretend to be as knowledgeable on DECE than you. However, doesn't it make you wonder why Disney is still trying to find yet another method of digital streaming/licensing than UV. With the creation of DMA and they opened the door to other "Digital Distributors" this effectively makes DMA the UV of Disney. They don't need UV in this case especially if they add Vudu (and others) as a "Digital Distributor" the DMA website will never close shop. Disney is not only the content creator they are also a streaming provider now. Why would they spend money on this venture if this is not their future? The DMA site steers you to other Disney sites/products. Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money...

Last I checked Disney is a well run company just like Apple.

[terpfan1980]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

Throwing a bit more water in some directions here...

Look, realistically all I care about as someone that wants to be able to see the Disney movies that I love, is that I can get to them in some way that is easy and can be used pretty much anywhere I go.

For now, the best approach for me seems to be to request redemption of the digital copies via Vudu. In the case of Thor 2, it seems that even having done that, once I plugged the code at DisneyMovieRewards, that it wound up telling DisneyMoviesAnywhere that I should have Thor 2 in my library. In effect, I got the film both on Vudu (which I definitely want) and on iTunes and DisneyMoviesAnywhere (which I'm happy about).

If that continues to work then I'm happy. If it stops working, then I've got a decision to make as to whether or not I'd want to continue to redeem first at Vudu versus any other provider or the DisneyMoviesAnywhere choice.

Given some serious frustrations I have with the Vudu app on the iPad (for example) where searching is not possible and scrolling through movies to find them based on when they were added to my library won't work very well (not with 700+ movies in my collection) along with frustrations with the app for the android tablets I have (it isn't very good on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 that I have, but that also relates to the firmware there being stuck back in prior versions of Androids, thanks to VZW) and the lack of an App at all for the Windows 8.1 tablet I have (Dell Venue 8 Pro) I can't at all claim to be happy with the ability to consume Vudu content when I'm mobile.

The iPad makes it easy to get content from my iTunes library and the link between DMA and iTunes helps there as well. On that side, well, I'm much more limited in which devices I can access the content on when I want to see it on my big screens (TVs) but it isn't like there aren't some magical devices available that work relatively well for that. In fact, well, I have a few of those at home as well.

Will I be happy when there is a single standard to work with? If it ever comes to pass sure, but I do not have the optimistic vision of the future that some other people here seem to have. It seems that we are far more likely to have to deal with multiple standards for at least a good while to come. I wish I could say otherwise, but I just don't see everyone sitting around the campfire singing songs of peace and love. These providers don't trust each other and they all want to or seem to want to maintain control so they can also reap more of the profits (which is something that is happening more and more often in the world of professional sports )

[jp62278]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

What are the possibilities that Disney becomes a streaming vendor for UV without sharing their own DMA library? I know this is the opposite direction most of us would prefer. But it seems it would offer the one stop shop most of us are looking for (as long as DMA apps become more ubiquitous). Count me in the camp that doesn't see Disney joining UV wholesale any time soon - sharing (as mentioned above) being the primary impediment. If I'm talking out of my a$$... wouldn't be the first time .

[MoWeb]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

What are the possibilities that Disney becomes a streaming vendor for UV without sharing their own DMA library? I know this is the opposite direction most of us would prefer. But it seems it would offer the one stop shop most of us are looking for (as long as DMA apps become more ubiquitous). Count me in the camp that doesn't see Disney joining UV wholesale any time soon - sharing (as mentioned above) being the primary impediment. If I'm talking out of my a$$... wouldn't be the first time .

What a great thought and hope. I'm pretty sure this would never happen because what studio in their right mind would let Disney stream their library. Disney certainly wouldn't pay for rights to do it. Paramount, Sony, Universal, stream their content but not any other.

[terpfan1980]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

What a great thought and hope. I'm pretty sure this would never happen because what studio in their right mind would let Disney stream their library. Disney certainly wouldn't pay for rights to do it. Paramount, Sony, Universal, stream their content but not any other.

Isn't Warners the owner of the F*ster site? Don't they provide access to content from other studios?

That said, you are right that most of the other studios don't provide (that I can recall) access to content from other studios. It would be a little silly to do that since you'd be helping your competitors sell their content. Of course, if they could make a buck doing so, they might not care at all. After all, you can find gift cards for iTunes in Target and they both sell movies and music. Heck, for that matter you can still get Kindle gift cards at Best Buy and those can be used to purchase anything on Amazon (they don't restrict the use of the Kindle gift cards to just Kindle content, the value can be used to purchase anything).

In the end the various sellers of the content all get paid a small amount for selling the content for the producers of said content. As long as that money can be had, I could see where whichever outlets the various studios have would wind up serving as the gateway to the content. Throw on top of everything the ability to promote your own content before starting up the content a customer is trying to access, or the ability to sell banner ads and such at your own front end site and I guess anything could be possible.

[MoWeb]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

Isn't Warners the owner of the F*ster site? Don't they provide access to content from other studios?

It's my understanding the steaming agreements were in place before the WB bought them. You also don't see the WB brand promoted there unlike if you were to go to Sony for instance. It's totally transparent ownership. Just one idiots opinion.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

I'm not nearly nor do I pretend to be as knowledgeable on DECE than you. However, doesn't it make you wonder why Disney is still trying to find yet another method of digital streaming/licensing than UV. With the creation of DMA and they opened the door to other "Digital Distributors" this effectively makes DMA the UV of Disney. They don't need UV in this case especially if they add Vudu (and others) as a "Digital Distributor" the DMA website will never close shop. Disney is not only the content creator they are also a streaming provider now. Why would they spend money on this venture if this is not their future? The DMA site steers you to other Disney sites/products. Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money...

Last I checked Disney is a well run company just like Apple.

as agents of a company, they report to their shareholders. There is a revenue stream from re-release of archived titles they are able to exploit more so then other studios. The thought is they fear this revenue stream will be erased if they join DECE, since everyone will have permanent static copies on a streaming provider's system and therefore have no motivation to purchase the 30th anniversary remix of BLANK......

There is no acknowledgement to confirm this, but I believe this is generally thought to be the reason.

The problem they will run into is the prospect of brand erosion as the rest of the industry continues to funnel via the UV pipe. At some point, Disney will find the loss revenue from re-releases will be less then the loss of their brand being eroded. IMHO, that point will occur this year.

[MattO]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

Here's the message I sent in to DMA this morning:

Hi DMA,

I was excited to learn about the launch of your service this week and Disney's interest in making digital content more accessible. Our family doesn't use iTunes or own any Apple product other than one ancient Nano, so we're anxious to see you extend your offerings to other partners like Vudu. We use Vudu through our Blu-Ray player, our tablets and our computers. Since Disney uses Vudu as a digital copy redemption partner, I'm sure that's under discussion but I wanted to put in at least one more vote. We'd love to see it happen!

Regards,
Matt O*****, Disney fan and movie collector

I have to believe that by day 3 of the launch they're already numb to "I can't believe you idiots are doing itunes only!!!!!!".

I still wonder if Vudu needs some encouragement. I wouldn't think too much, as they know the demand Vudu users have for Disney content, but I bet the terms aren't as favorable with Disney as other studios.

[MattO]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

You could argue that Microsoft too had no need to add a Bluray player to their xbox one console. Yet, there it is.

Back to this for one more thing. I think you might see this as just an example of an entertainment technology company getting in line with the industry against their will for the sake of bowing to a standard. I see it as an example of consumer demand. People want their content on their preferred devices, and Microsoft was fighting that. There was plenty of consumer demand for change because the lack of a Blu-Ray drive had some glaring shortcoming for consumers - HD format, storage space and extras. You just couldn't use the movies you bought at major retailers with their product, and that was untenable.

In DMA's case, today's situation that you can only do this DMA stuff with itunes is also untenable, but it's short term. Once they have several vendor integrations, that will be good enough for most people. That includes me, who has something like 500 UV movies. Once I have my content on my devices inside of my apps, I don't particularly care that much that they'll validating my rights to that content by hitting a different server. I'd love the equivalent of UV's D2D program, but the integration with DMR is a pretty decent alternative and I just expect that to get better.

[echopulse]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

It's been more than a year since the report that iTunes owned 60% of the EST market. I'd like to see updated numbers. With all the new competition like TargetTicket, and Comcast on Demand taking 15%, and others, it surely can't be that high anymore. I'm sure vudu and Amazon Instant have also grown since then. If you count sales and redemption, it must be much lower, but I'd like to know how much. There are millions of people out there with Android Devices, and devices other than Apple TV's. That is where UV is useful. When the CFF is deployed, I think that will change the market in a significant way for people who won's use iTunes. Millions of people use downloads that are not iTunes, and they will demand UV CFF once they see how great it is. Also, if Amazon ever becomes a UV retailer it's all but over. UV will be the true standard. Disney will fall soon after that.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Plans for "Disney Movies Anywhere" to link to Vudu?

I think x-box marketplace or the Playstation store would nail the proverbial coffin shut too. Both Sony and Microsoft are DECE members.

Sony announced a new on-demand OTT iVoD service which will include live TV. If this is a UV compatible service it would be hard for DMA to suggest their digital products will not run on it, on TargetTicket, on Nook, etc when they could just join DECE and call it a day.

...but you are right. Amazon becoming an active DECE member would be hard to ignore.