Report: Major Studios to Join Disney’s Digital Movie Program

Bloomberg is reporting that most of the major Hollywood studios have signed onto a new digital film service that was developed by Disney using the technology behind Disney Movies Anywhere. Keychest, the tech that powers the service, allows consumers to buy a movie on one service such as iTunes, Amazon, or Google Play and access it across services including the Disney Movies Anywhere app. They can also redeem a digital copy code that is included in most Blu-Ray releases.

20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and Universal are said to be joining the service. Paramount and Lionsgate are sitting out at this time but are said to be supportive and may join at a future date.

Disney launched Disney Movies Anywhere in 2014 while most other studios signed on for the Ultra-Violet program. While Disney Movies Anywhere has only featured Disney movies, it does connect to the more popular services such as iTunes and Amazon, while Ultra-Violet does not.

There are still many questions about how this will all play out, which will hopefully be answered when/if the service is announced. It should be noted that Keychest is for movies that an individual owns as opposed to the subscription based direct-to-consumer service that Disney plans to launch in 2019.

UPDATE:

It appears that Disney and the other studios have started teasing the service. The Twitter accounts for several movies and studios tweeted #AnywhereIsComing. This seems to be a teaser for their upcoming service.