• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Media Conglomerate Hoping To Simplify The Digital Media World

Posted on: Sunday, 14 September 2008, 17:55 CDT

A group of media companies are planning to build a digital world where consumers can store their digital content and have access to it from anywhere on the globe.

The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem or DECE, as the group is called, is working on a “uniform digital media experience” but doesn't plan to release any details until the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

According to DECE President Mitch Singer, the group hopes to call for interoperability of devices and websites, and to set up usage rules that will allow consumers to copy content onto household devices.

Their plan will also provide customers with a virtual library where digital purchases can be stored, similar to the way email works.

All DECE compatible devices will bear the DECE logo, letting consumers know the services and products meet the group's standards.

"We will be developing a ... specification that services and device makers can license. They can use the logo to associate their device, knowing that when the consumer goes to buy the content, they know it will play," said Singer.

Singer hopes the new idea will flip Apple's closed iTunes model on its head.

"This is very different from the Apple ecosystem," Singer said. "We encourage Apple to join the consortium. We don't ever anticipate Apple going away or this consortium replacing it."

The group plans to provide the digital world with the sense of simplicity that is found with media such as DVD's and CD's.

"They knew that when they brought (a DVD or CD) home, they could play it on the device of their choice," said Mark Coblitz, senior vice president of strategic planning for Comcast Corp.

DECE is comprised of a large group of global media companies including Alcatel-Lucent, Best Buy Co Inc, Cisco Systems Inc, Comcast, News Corp's Fox Entertainment Group, Hewlett-Packard Co, Intel, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, Microsoft Corp, General Electric Co's NBC Universal, Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures, Philips, Sony Corp, Toshiba, and Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros Entertainment.

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

More News in this Category