Making inroads in the UK at a snail pace, the cloud-based digital locker system UltraViolet may get a boost with the introduction of UV functionalities on supermarket chain Tesco's video streaming service blinkbox. These plans were announced by blinkbox MD, Adrian Letts, at the recent PEVE conference in London.

The introduction of UltraViolet on blinkbox means customers can instantly stream or download qualifying UltraViolet titles they have bought as physical discs on a wide variety of devices. Designated UltraViolet titles that customers 'buy to keep' digitally from blinkbox also qualify for UltraViolet rights including streaming, downloading and sharing with up to five family members.

However, press reports indicated that Tesco was actually seeking a buyer for blinkbox, which it acquired three years ago, or would be pulling the plug if none was found. Ditching what was built to become an effective competitor to Netflix and Amazon's LoveFilm is part of a internal business review Tesco's new CEO Dave Lewis launched. Latest figures filed at Companies House show that in the year to February 2013, blinkbox generated revenues of £3.2 million, up from £2.3 million a year before, and made an operating loss of £17.97 million - dramatically widened from a £5.56 million loss the year before.

If one goes by announcements made at the UltraViolet Academy in London in December 2013 (read article), UK retailers were to be working on a February 2014 launch of heavily coordinated marketing efforts to push UltraViolet. With a catalogue of some 10,000 films and TV programmes, for rent or purchase, blinkbox would certainly be a key player to move UV forward in the British Isles. UV progenitor Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) claims more than 1.5 million UV registered accounts to date.

The complexity of the system for consumers was once again the leitmotiv at PEVE. BT TV general manager of content acquisition, Ian Moss, told delegates that UltraViolet's complexity is a "huge challenge," its usage is difficult and to succeed the service needs to offer "a great viewing experience."

Yves Caillaud, DECE's Europe regional manager, conceeded that UltraViolet needs "much simpler and cheaper implementation." He announced that a simplified implementation for devices based on the Common File Format was in the pipeline.

For his part, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment UK MD, Robert Price, warned that the industry should not make the same mistake as Blu-ray at its inception. "Fox needed simplicity [...] if we keep the message complex we will fail."

Survey results presented at PEVE by market researcher YouGov revealed that 12% of respondents would consider giving UltraViolet a try with their next DVD/Blu-ray disc purchase. Some 55% of respondents who have tried UV said they would do so again, while 22% who had not used the cloud-based digital delivery system said they would do so.

Story filed 18.10.14