UltraViolet, the digital locker service supported by major studios and retailers, has announced that it will be making a large push into Europe beginning in the fall. Thus far the service has only been rolled out in English speaking countries, but it will expand to other languages when it hits France and Germany beginning in Sept. of this year. It is also slated to expand into Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, but no launch date has been announced for those markets as of yet.
Mark Teitell, general manager and executive director Digital Entertainment Content System (DECE) – the company behind the service – said that there will also be a larger push to spread the adoption of the service in the U.K. this year where it currently has 500,000 users. To that end, it appears that talks between Tesco, the largest retailer in the region, and UltraViolet are progressing and the company may soon sign up as a retail partner putting in front of just about everyone in the region.
UltraViolet has been making its way on to more and more discs as the "digital copy" included with films. If the service is able to pick up enough users through out Europe, expect to see this trend not only continue, but quite likely increase.
