UltraViolet (website)

UltraViolet was a cloud-based digital rights locker for films and television programs that allowed consumers to store proofs-of-purchase of licensed content in an account to enable playback on different devices using multiple applications from several different streaming services. UltraViolet also allowed users to share access to their library with up to five additional people. UltraViolet was deployed by the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), an alliance of 85^{[citation needed]} companies that included film studios, retailers, consumer electronics manufacturers, cable television companies, internet service providers (ISPs), internet hosting vendors, and other systems and security vendors, with the notable exceptions of Walt Disney Studios, Google, Amazon, MGM, and Apple.

On January 31, 2019, DECE announced that UltraViolet would shut down on July 31, 2019. This shutdown came after the launch of Movies Anywhere over a year earlier, along with Fox, Universal, Lionsgate, Paramount, and Warner Bros. beginning to drop out of issuing new UV rights for their films during that time period.

To use UltraViolet, consumers needed to create a free account, either through a participating UltraViolet service provider, or through the official website. An UltraViolet account was a digital rights locker where licenses (effectively receipts) for purchased content were stored and managed irrespective of the point of sale. The account holder was allowed to share their library with 5 other users, which were called members.

Consumers could acquire UltraViolet rights by purchasing a physical disc that included an UltraViolet activation code, by purchasing a movie directly from an electronic retailer (a.k.a. EST, or Electronic sell-through), or by using a disc to digital service (D2D). Disc to digital services allowed consumers to insert a DVD or Blu-ray into their computer's disc drive, scan it to verify ownership, and then add it to their UltraViolet collection for a fee. Several retailers including Vudu and CinemaNow offered this service. Flixster had been offering a D2D service as well, but it was suspended once Fandango acquired Flixster in early 2016 and another independent movie streaming service, M-GO.

Consumers could then stream or download their UltraViolet content from any participating retailer. Former participating retailers are listed in the table below.

The UltraViolet digital locker did not store video files, and was not a "cloud storage" platform. Only the rights for purchased content were stored on the service. UltraViolet only coordinated and managed the licenses for each account, but not the content itself. By creating a digital-rights locker rather than a digital media storage locker, UltraViolet bypassed the cost of storage and bandwidth used when the media is accessed and passed that cost on to various service providers.

Five of the then "Big Six" major film studios (now the "Big Five" since 2019) and "mini-major" Lionsgate were members of DECE, and released their content with UltraViolet rights. Other minor film and television studios released their programming and movies with UltraViolet rights, but were not DECE members.

Despite Fox merging with Disney in 2019, Walt Disney Studios was never a member of DECE, and did not release any of their films with UltraViolet rights. On February 25, 2014, Disney launched a competing digital movie locker system called Disney Movies Anywhere that allowed any Disney movie purchased or redeemed at any participating provider to be played using all other DMA providers. DMA providers included iTunes, Vudu, Google Play, Amazon Video, and Microsoft Movies & TV. On October 12, 2017, Disney Movies Anywhere was expanded to include movies from a number of non-Disney studios, thus forming a full-fledged UltraViolet competitor. This service is now called Movies Anywhere to reflect the expanded scope of content.