“Hollywood is challenging the hegemony of Apple in digital distribution. A consortium of major studios — excluding key Apple ally Walt Disney Co. — is teaming up with leading retailers and consumer-electronics firms to essentially transform the paid download into an experience akin to buying a DVD. The goal is letting video purchased at any outlet be played on any device worldwide,” Andrew Wallenstein reports for The Hollywood Reporter.
“Known as the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), the consortium brings together Warner Bros. Entertainment, Fox Entertainment Group, NBC Universal, Sony, Paramount Pictures and Comcast Corp. with retailer Best Buy along with tech giants Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Philips, Toshiba and Verisign. Each company has an invested an unspecified sum in the endeavor,” Wallenstein reports.
Wallenstein reports, “If DECE takes hold, it would institute several precedent-setting principles:”
• Participating devices and services will be interoperable regardless of differing brands or corporate provenance. A TV episode, for instance, could be just as easily accessed on Microsoft’s Zune as it would a Philips broadband-enabled TV set.
• DECE would allow an unlimited number of copies of a video to be created or burned onto a disc.
• The consumer would even have the option of not storing the copy at all, but rather streaming it from a server-based “rights locker” that can be tapped from any location.
• DECE would create open standards whereby any company that chose to create contents or services can do so to available specifications.
“‘While we haven’t yet had conversations with them about joining, we’d love to have them,’ said said Mitch Singer, chief technology officer at Sony Pictures and the lead architect of DECE, who added that DECE has reached out to Disney,” Wallenstein reports. “‘We’re going in a slightly different direction than Apple by offering more choice in terms of storefront and device.'”
Wallenstein reports, “DECE plans to announce a brand name and logo, as well as a more detailed plan, at the upcoming Consumers Electronics Show in January.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “KingMel,” “Martin” and “Grigori” for the heads up.]
Without Apple, DECE is likely to be a PlaysForSure rerun.