Blinkbox founder Michael Cormish has said he expects enough product featuring the Ultraviolet digital distribution technology to be in store by Christmas 2012.
Speaking at the HIS Screen Digest Future of Digital Media Distribution event, Cormish anticipated the first UltraViolet titles to appear early next year, allowing for an UltraViolet Christmas later in the year.
The premise of UltraViolet is to allow consumers to watch film and television content across multiple branded platforms, such as computers, connected TVs, game consoles, smartphones and tablets. When a consumer purchases an UltraViolet DVD it is then possible to watch versions of the title on these other devices. BSkyB, BT, FilmFlex, Lovefilm, Red Bee Media and Tesco are all members the consortium, which initially expected
However, the premise of UltaViolet was questioned by Screen Digest analyst Dan Cryan, who told delegates that consumers were not demanding the ability to have access on multiple devices when they typically only watched a movie once. Cryan said the exception was the children’s video market.
Cormish described how Blinkbox had sought additional funding before the purchase of 80% of the company’s equity by the retailer Tesco in April this year. “The amount of capital available to start-ups was significantly less than it had been, so it became clear to me we either needed to partner or to sell, and it became quickly apparant that we needed to sell”.
Tesco will begin to position Blinkbox as part of the Tesco family from early next year.
