Unless I’m missing something, Hollywood took a credible leap into the digital future this week when about four dozen companies made a quiet announcement that they had agreed on a single file format for virtually all forms of digital downloads.
The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), comprising 48 movie studios and tech companies, came up with a single, standardized format that will allow consumers to download movies (or any content, really) and play it on any device - the computer, Verizon phone, your X-box or cable-ready TV.
Well, with one big exception: Apple. They're not on board. Oh, and one more: Disney. They're not on board yet either.
But most everybody else is: Paramount, Warners, Fox, Sony, Comcast, Intel, Panasonic, Toshiba, Thomson, Cisco and a dozen other tech companies.
This means that when consumers buy a movie, their 'ownership' will be stored in a cloud of servers to which they can have access at any time, and stream that movie onto any device. (Except, say, an iPhone. Ouch.) They'll receive a code that unlocks their purchase, but that can be used on most every device.
The format is called 'the common file format,' and is a new format, based on Flash existing technologies.
The idea of the DECE's efforts - ongoing since September 2008 - was to avoid the format battles that plagued the video market in the battle between Betamax and VHS. The movie companies managed to avoid that mistake when it came to DVDs, and agreed on a single standard for formatting on that platform. That led to a decade of dazzling prosperity in the home entertainment market.
The hope is that the DECE's aim of "buy once, play anywhere" will create the same prosperity for the age of the digital download, as consumers move away from all physical entertainment products toward downloads that they don't have to own and store.
What does this mean for Apple and Disney? Disney may change its mind and join the party, but for the moment has a competing technology called 'keychest.' And Apple, notoriously single-minded, may stay the lone wolf.
But for the moment, the industry has figured out a way foward, by cooperating.
Here's the announcement from earlier this week:
LOS ANGELES, CA (January 4, 2010) – Today the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem LLC (DECE LLC), www.decellc.com, a coalition with support from every industry involved in digital entertainment, announced it has reached key milestones toward establishing the first open market for digital content distribution. In addition, DECE announced that 21 companies have joined the group which now includes 48 members across entertainment, software, hardware, retail, infrastructure and delivery.
The milestones announced today include:
· Agreement on a Common File Format, an open specification for digital entertainment, that will be used by all participating content providers, services and device manufacturers
· Vendor selection for and role of the Digital Rights Locker, a cloud-based authentication service and account management hub that allows consumers rights access to their digital entertainment
· Approval of five Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions that will be DECE-compatible
Full technical specifications will be available in the first half of 2010.
