If you’re an entrepreneur or work in the digital content space, we urge you again to consider attending the “New Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Digital Entertainment: The UltraViolet Approach” forum at CalTech Tomorrow morning. It might be too late to pre-register online for a $10 discount, but you can still get in at the door.
We’ve written a little summary of UltraViolet earlier this week, but in short, it’s a new initiative that has the ambitious goal of letting consumers buy content once anywhere and watch it on any device they own. It’s backed by 6 of the 7 the major film studios and a bunch of very influential tech companies including Sony, Microsoft, and Intel. (You may notice the conspicuous absence of Apple and Google, which has us scratching our heads too. We’ll be sure to find out about their status at the forum on Saturday.)
They’re very keen on getting startups involved with the initiative hence the impetus behind this public forum. In fact, one of the main panelists is the CEO of a recommendation engine startup called Jinni, Yosi Glick:
“UltraViolet creates an exciting opportunity to build personal entertainment consumption profiles around a central repository of content rights. Highly accurate recommendations keep user watchlists filled with content items that accurately match their entertainment tastes. Consumers crave an enjoyable, personalized discovery experience and this is a powerful motivator in making the decision to buy, instead of just rent. Jinni brings added-value of enhanced user experience and consumption that is closely aligned with the commercial objectives of Hollywood.”
If this initiative takes off, there appears to be room for many opportunities to work within the ecosystem even if you’re not a Microsoft or Netflix. It may be a pretty big “if,” to get all the pieces working together but the consumer demand is there for something like it.
Hey, what’s the worst that could happen? You’re out just $50 and a trip to Pasadena for a networking event with some of the biggest players in the entertainment and tech industries. Doesn’t sound so bad to me.
Read more details of the event here.
