VUDU Fox UV Status Change Effective 07/11/18

[xbs2034]

I might do more later on, but did a quick check on the IOS apps of a couple Fox titles which I had through UV family share as well as a couple redeemed on CinemaNow, and they are still there in VUDU and MA no problem. I think the only real worry is people will lose films if UV closes, but that pretty much doesn't seem to be the case (I also expected that as I have Don Jon from Relativity Media via UV family share, and that's long since lost UV status but is still in my VUDU).

Ultimately, I don't think this is a big deal then, as VUDU was the only UV retailer left for these movies and I do prefer the MA video services anyway. Sure, not getting family share for future purchases on catalog Fox films is a bit annoying, but since it has been that way for new Fox releases for many months and some MA services have their own family share features, I don't think it is too much of an issue.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by twobelowpar

Vudu should simply have their own sharing system that doesn't rely on UV. iTunes and Google have their own. Vudu should too.
UV is all but dead.

Or Movies Anywhere have a sharing feature like UV.

[flyfree432]

A few major studios like Paramount and Lionsgate are still UV only. I tried to get my last few Fox titles in today. Of the 9, 3 ended up in my UV locker. The rest are MA only. So it happened right around 12:00 PM EST.

[Chedwiggen]

Originally Posted by Alan Gordon

Or Movies Anywhere have a sharing feature like UV.

I'd rather Vudu have their own system like other retailers so we don't end up going through the same thing again down the line.

[AZBrowncoat]

As with many of you, this change will adversely effect my ability to share my movies with family/friends.

However, in the long run something had to change as UV never fulfilled it's promise of being "THE" central locker system. Key holdouts like Apple and Disney, and the demise of most of the other UV players sealed UV's fate. It makes no economic sense for studios to belong to two competing locker systems, and have to pay licensing fees to both, especially since one is gasping it's last breath.

Personally, I'd much rather see the studios put their full support behind one single locker system and have it succeed than have two.

MA is already just as successful, and arguably more so, than UV ever was. Expand MA to include TV, bring on other studios (including smaller independents), bring on more retailers and most of us will be in a better position than we were with UV.

Right now I'm having an issue with my movies on Apple; however, anything that is MA I can watch on Amazon, Google, FandangoNow or Vudu. If my collection was strictly UV and I was having issues with Vudu what are my options...FandangoNow (ShootMeNow).

UV was dying and FOX knew it...

[vwnut13]

Originally Posted by MachoKing

It sounds like you have little experience in digital collecting.

How is UV supposed to switch to MA only? How does it put pressure on studios to switch to MA only? Why is it a good thing for something going from UV+MA to just MA only?

Because UV is redundant if all of the studios are on MA.

[echopulse]

Originally Posted by MachoKing

It sounds like you have little experience in digital collecting.

How is UV supposed to switch to MA only? How does it put pressure on studios to switch to MA only? Why is it a good thing for something going from UV+MA to just MA only?

I have over 800 movies in my digital collection. I have bought movies from Vudu, CinemaNow, MGO, Target Ticket, FandangoNow, Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play. I wrote 90% of the UltraViolet Wikipedia Article. I have written articles about UltraViolet on numerous websites, and argued in favor of it on many forums.

Now that you know that, I wish to say, that if the studio holdouts know that MA is more successful, and popular than UV, as evidenced by the studios dropping support for UV, then that will put pressure on them to switch. Each one that switches increases the ante. for others.

[jrod8]

Agreed with echoplus’ assessment. I’m guessing we’re going to see LGF, MGM and PAR joining MA before the year is up. The adoption rate among non-collectors as folks Like us has been so wildly over proportional to UV despite the massive difference in availability (meaning UV has had far too many years of existence to still be a poor user experience to the average person) that it’s essentially all but dead. I myself ignored didigtalfor a long time (being among your “physical only!” crowd) and even I’ve almost fully succumbed. I’m just glad I did before the main good times were over and count myself lucky to have received so many iTunes codes for 4K upgrades before I watched Fox and now Uni forcibly redirect you to MA only. I just hope Vudu is able to continue their d2d/m2d program but if not, again fortunately I’ve been able to convert nearly all my discs and got in about 17 Fox titles the other night before the deadlines thanks to the heads up from you fine folks. Kind of feels like I made it right at the end of a land rush and grabbed my piece just before we ran out of property.

[AZBrowncoat]

If "sharing' your collection is your only concern - help brainstorm ideas here...

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...1#post15275851

[Greyman]

Originally Posted by MachoKing

If you've been around that long and only have 800 movies then it just proves my point.
...

No need for that.

[echopulse]

There's just not that many movies that are good enough for me to spend time watching more than once. I have easily deleted 60+ movies from my account that were added by a shared account or those that were free with a promotion. I have used disc to digital since the day it was launched in March 2012.

But what I have said about pressure to join is just my opinion, just like your statement your opinion, and nobody knows for sure what will happen in the future.

[supaet]

Originally Posted by echopulse

I for one, am glad this is happening. This puts more pressure on UV and other studios to bow to the pressure to switch to MA only. It will be better in the long one if their is one digital locker system. I said the same thing 3 years ago when it was UV. But UV was never close to making it happen. Movies Anywhere is close, just needs a few more partners. I refuse to buy any more movies from any studios that don't support MA.

well, I think it's because you're not that heavily invested into UV like some others.
Imagine if you have some UV contents that's not currently available on VUDU, a UV shutdown would mean that you losing those content forever.

not to mention the multiple accounts of UV/vudu sharing that was set up.

[crackedknee]

Things were different when there were 4 services allowing access to UV (Vudu, Flixster, FandangoNow, and CinemaNow; others, but those were the big 4).

For a while, since one service would report the collection list to the UV locker, this helped to ensure that the UV collection stayed stable (in other words, if one service dropped a movie, logging into another service would report that movie back to UV, and back into the service where it was deleted).

The long and short of what I'm getting at, is that the system allowed stability but also glitches that sometimes granted free rights. Naturally that would be generally viewed as a problem by the studios. But that stability, or certainty, eroded with the demise of CN and Flixster.

Disney has always been opposed to sharing; those movies were always Vudu and DMA (now MA) only. It's no surprise that other studios might want to follow suit: MA represents dollar signs in extra sales of non-sharing items (sharing defined by how easily it works in UV vs MS, still one step easier than AZBrowncoat's MA sharing ideas thread)

This is about money, not about greater consumer choice. It's about shrinking consumer options from what they accidentally unleashed with UV (and its sharing, which seems to me was more of a Vudu idea than an idea with UV). It's just that UV made it easier for me, for example, to share a collection with 3 friends and 1 family (all with Vudu accounts connected to my UV). So Disney/Fox plus Universal are seeking to generate revenue by shrinking that ease of sharing (or better defined as "owning", since that's how UV registers in the sub-accounts, the crucial difference).

Keychest is the system that Disney favored for MA to allow greater control of how rights get established. Remember that UV WAS a cooperative between most studios that had the same "goals" as MA (viewing your collection unified across the various services).

I never had any problems with UV, nor with MA (or DMA). I prefer UV for its ease, and regret my friends and family not getting MA items. but I am certainly getting those MA items myself. That said, I have no slavish devotion to UV or to MA, as some seem to have. I see disadvantages in getting stuck with Disney etc, who then exercise even more typical greed in this matter. But again, I have always been amazed that the UV sharing (or rather, owned by all) system ever existed in the first place.

[echopulse]

In the US, there isn't really any UV content that I can think of that's not UV on Vudu. You can only buy films with UV rights from Vudu now with the exception of FandangoNow, but only for Lionsgate and Paramount. If UV shuts down after Paramount and Lionsgate join MA, what would we lose? Not much. You might have lost content from CinemaNow, but that's already gone. I would be pissed if Lionsgate and Paramount left UV without joining MA. I wouldn't lose anything though, because the movies would still be in my Vudu account. The only thing I, or anyone else would lose, is Vudu account sharing. But they could always create a new sharing feature that doesn't depend on UV. So, in the long run it will be better for the industry and consumers in the long run if all the studios and retailers unite under one system. At one point I hoped they would all join UV, but it just wasn't a system that was designed, and run well enough to make all the players happy. So now we can just hope the remaining players will jump on board the MA train.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by Chedwiggen

I'd rather Vudu have their own system like other retailers so we don't end up going through the same thing again down the line.

While I said "or", there's nothing to prevent VUDU from having their own as well.

MA could have a sharing feature that shares MA enabled titles, and VUDU could have one that shares ALL content (like movies from independent studios not supporting MA, as well as TV content).

My advice to people upset about MA not having a sharing feature like UV has, is that whenever WB A-List asks questions about MA, suggest sharing features like UV had. Whenever one contacts MA about a problem, throw in a request at the end for a sharing feature, so they can (hopefully) send that request up the chain.

[supaet]

Originally Posted by echopulse

In the US, there isn't really any UV content that I can think of that's not UV on Vudu. You can only buy films with UV rights from Vudu now with the exception of FandangoNow, but only for Lionsgate and Paramount. If UV shuts down after Paramount and Lionsgate join MA, what would we lose? Not much. You might have lost content from CinemaNow, but that's already gone. I would be pissed if Lionsgate and Paramount left UV without joining MA. I wouldn't lose anything though, because the movies would still be in my Vudu account. The only thing I, or anyone else would lose, is Vudu account sharing. But they could always create a new sharing feature that doesn't depend on UV. So, in the long run it will be better for the industry and consumers in the long run if all the studios and retailers unite under one system. At one point I hoped they would all join UV, but it just wasn't a system that was designed, and run well enough to make all the players happy. So now we can just hope the remaining players will jump on board the MA train.

you lose anything that's in UV but not yet in VUDU.

and you lose tv shows. as the other poster mentioned, UV and MA coexist is the best for everyone, not MA killing UV.

[Greyman]

Originally Posted by crackedknee

...

Disney has always been opposed to sharing; those movies were always Vudu and DMA (now MA) only. It's no surprise that other studios might want to follow suit: MA represents dollar signs in extra sales of non-sharing items (sharing defined by how easily it works in UV vs MS, still one step easier than AZBrowncoat's MA sharing ideas thread)...

... It's just that UV made it easier for me, for example, to share a collection with 3 friends and 1 family (all with Vudu accounts connected to my UV). So Disney/Fox plus Universal are seeking to generate revenue by shrinking that ease of sharing (or better defined as "owning", since that's how UV registers in the sub-accounts, the crucial difference).
...

Disney has always allowed sharing on iTunes and I think Google Play.
I am sure there were many factors why Disney did not join UV, sharing may be just one of them.
If Vudu came up with their own sharing system, not just relying on the UV backbone, then we could see what Disney would allow.

But yes, sharing one purchase with multiple people, especially non family members I am sure would get under Disney's skin if they were part of UV.

[Fiffy]

I understand that some people still use grandfathered shared UV accounts, but realistically, those won't be around much longer anyway. Personally I hope UV dies quickly so the lagging studios are forced to move on. I'm sick and tired of buying discs and discovering they have a UV-only code that effectively locks the movie into Vudu, which is not my preferred streaming service.

[jrod8]

The slips may indeed by a trojan horse to get everyone excited about digital, I certainly know it was for me, and I agree that stores barely carry much physical stock anymore - but I think the main point that most folks are making is that aside from the sharing of UV (which really only works if you're lucky enough to have a grandfathered account that still functions) there's frankly not much of a difference, and the ultimate goal for movie fans (or at least speaking for myself) is ONE service where ALL vendors are synced up. It's not like MA is taking away movies or something. I just hope all the companies get on board so it becomes seamless across all distributors. Whether UV survives that or not, I honestly couldn't care less. I'll really only be disappointed if it means the end of Vudu's d2d service as it's been a great way to convert a very large physical collection spanning back almost 2 decades of collecting movies on various formats. If only I could get some of the OOP laserdiscs with exclusive commentaries converted lol!

[AZBrowncoat]

Originally Posted by jrod8

If only I could get some of the OOP laserdiscs with exclusive commentaries converted lol!

Hehe, be a nice trick to convert my Laserdiscs complete with bonus material.