It sounds like Disney is getting into the entertainment technology game in a big way. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on a really cool new venture it's involved in, codename Keychest. It would seek to change the way people purchase entertainment. DVDs and Blu-rays would become obsolete. Here's how it would work:
The technology, code-named Keychest, could contribute to a shift in what it means for a consumer to own a movie or a TV show, by redefining ownership as access rights, not physical possession.
The technology would allow consumers to pay a single price for permanent access to a movie or TV show across multiple digital platforms and devices--from the Web, to mobile gadgets like iPhones and cable services that allow on-demand viewing. It could also facilitate other services such as online movie subscriptions.
Where do I sign up? It sounds like a great idea to me. Clearly, Disney isn't the only firm working on a project like this, but it has a lot of weight in the entertainment business and a vast library to utilize. Here's a bit more:
Keychest aims to address two of the biggest hurdles blocking widespread consumer adoption of movie downloads: the difficulty of playing a movie back on devices other than a PC or laptop, and limited storage space on those computers' hard drives.
The day is coming when technology like this won't be a novelty: it will be essential. And that inevitable outcome isn't far off. My new LCD TV and Blu-ray player both have internet connections where I can obtain content. It's wasteful for entertainment firms to spend money producing and shipping physical media like DVDs when they can just upload you the same content in a few minutes. With such a reduced cost, they can charge consumers less but make more profit.
There also needs to be a unified system that brings content to all devices. It shouldn't be hard to watch TV shows that I've DVR'd on my laptop or iPhone. Right now, it is.
It sounds to me like Keychest seeks to solve these problems. The WSJ piece also notes a similar initiative out there called the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem. Stay tuned to see who gets there first. I hope these efforts are advancing quickly, because I think we're ready for it.
Of course this isn't a zero-sum supply-chain game, though. While not a direct relationiship, when a consumer buys/enjoys media purchased in physical medium the packaging/shipping/etc costs are borne by one group of parties. When they stream or download media, these costs are borne by another group, namely, ISP's.
Color me skeptical. With any of these things the content owners always seem to put a big fat asterisk that makes these services a lot let appealing. I know when Amazon's Unbox service launched one of the selling points was download to your device, watch, delete to free up hard drive space and simply download* again when you want to watch again. The asterisk being "subject to certain blackout periods." I know there are people who bought Borat as a digital download to their TiVo, paying full price which I think was $15 or $20, watched it once and deleted it. A week or two later they went to watch it again and they were unable to download, it was in the PPV blackout period, then it went to the premium movie channels black out period. Last time I checked in they hadn't been able to re-download a movie they "own" for over a year. And they paid the same price (actually probably more) than they would for a DVD copy.
The rental side is only marginally better, all of the major on demand individual rentals seem to be $3.99 for an SD release, and $4.99 or more for HD rentals, which are pretty similar as you would pay by going to a video store and renting a disc. The digital rental only gives you 24 hours to watch the entire movie though, while most video stores give you a few days for the same price. Plus of course you get things like closed captions, subtitles, and special features with a disc that are still nowhere to be found on downloads.
I'm all in favor of getting rid of physical media, but not until I can be sure that I will be able to do the same things with content that comes from the cloud (or they decide to charge me a reduced price to compensate for the loss of functionality)
> would allow consumers to pay a single price for
> permanent access to a movie or TV show
That sounds good to me. Especially the "permanent". That means, of course, even if Disney suddenly decides to discontinue Keychest (like so many other crappy DRM schemes), it will still be legal for me to use the content I've bought, however I like (and however I obtain access to it). Since I paid for permanent access.
Don't worry. I haven't drunk the marketing cool-aid. You can be sure there will be lots of little print saying "If/when we decide, you are up the creek without a paddle", like all the other DRM-based schemes.
> the difficulty of playing a movie back on
> devices other than a PC or laptop
Tell Disney to call me back when reality has finally forced them, like the music industry, to give up on DRM, which is what is really making it difficult for the consumer to do this.