The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Ultraviolet to challenge iTunes movie download dominance

Author

By John Glenday, Reporter

November 21, 2011 | 1 min read

Hollywood’s leading studios are clubbing together to collaborate on Ultraviolet, a new movie download service that aims to chip away at iTunes market dominance.

The move is an overt attempt by the industry to avoid the mistakes of the music industry by distributing their own content online.

It operates by furnishing purchasers of DVD and Blu Ray content with a unique code which grants the owner the right to download or stream the film online.

The industry believes their service will prove a hit with consumers as it means content can be played on any computer, smartphone, tablet or PC – unlike iTunes which is closed to Apple only products.

It will also curtail the practice of people ‘ripping’ their DVD’s to play elsewhere.

Warner Bros, Fox, Sony Pictures and Universal are amongst the studios backing the venture, which has debuted in the US with Horrible Bosses and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II.

Ultraviolet will be launched in the UK next year.

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +