Ultraviolet, the service which first offered a convenient way for you to access your digitally-purchased movies across multiple retailers, is closing …
The company has announced that it will close on July 31, and that users should ensure all their content is linked to a participating retailer before that date. Anyone failing to do this may lose access.
What should you do now? Login and choose Retailer Services to verify the retailers linked to your UltraViolet Library. If your Library is not currently linked to a retailer or if you would like to link to additional participating retailers, select one or more retailers to link to your UltraViolet Library.
The company was hit by Disney’s decision not to support the service, instead developing its own Disney Movies Anywhere option. Apple also declined to allow purchased iTunes content to be added, and other major players like Amazon and Google also decided against supporting Ultraviolet – unlike rival service Movies Anywhere.
DECE, the company behind the service, told Variety that market had changed significantly since it launched.
DECE president Wendy Aylsworth told Variety in an exclusive interview this week that the decision to discontinue Ultraviolet was a response to the evolution of the market for online entertainment. “The marketplace for collecting entertainment content was very small when Ultraviolet started,” she said. “It was siloed into walled gardens at the time.”
Since then, services had become more comprehensive, giving fans of movies and TV shows more options to access and collect their titles. Aylsworth acknowledged that there has also been a move toward subscription services, but said ownership of movie and TV show collections would continue to play a significant role for the industry going forward. “It’s very clear to us that it is on very sound footing,” she said.
Ultraviolet currently stores more than 300M movies and TV shows for more than 30M users.
One company that did offer Ultraviolet support was Vudu, which has reassured its customers that their content is safe.
Customers who use Vudu to watch, rent, or buy movies and TV shows will not be impacted by the discontinuation of the Ultraviolet platform. These customers will continue to be able to enjoy Vudu content as they have been and continue to access any and all movies and TV shows they have saved in their Vudu library, even after the shutdown of the Ultraviolet service.
Update: Vudu sent the following message to its users today regarding the UltraViolet shutdown:
The discontinuation of the UltraViolet service will not impact your ability to watch, rent or buy movies and TV shows on Vudu. You currently have an UltraViolet Library connected to your Vudu account, and all of the titles you have in your Vudu account today will continue to be accessible in your Vudu account up to and after UltraViolet shuts down.
Photo: The Verge
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