The film business tries to learn from others’ mistakes
(From The Economist print edition)
This week the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), a
consortium that includes five of the six big studios as well as
technology firms and retailers, agreed a format for digital films and
named a single outfit to keep track of purchases. Consumers will be
able to buy a film once and then play it on different gadgets. As it
will be held on a remote server, they will not have to transfer it from
device to device. Disney, the studio shunning the consortium, has a
similar initiative called KeychestDECE’s initiative aims to stop a company doing to film what Apple
has done to music and Amazon threatens to do to electronic books. By
taking a huge lead in the market, and by tying content to their own
devices, the iPod and the Kindle, these firms have been able to dictate
terms to media firms. Instead of a closed system, Mitch Singer, the
head of DECE and a Sony employee, wants to create something more like
the CD or the DVD–an open format that will encourage competition and
innovation.