Advanced Television

TW’s Bewkes: ‘Consumers love UltraViolet’

February 6, 2014

By Colin Mann

Jeff Bewkes, Chairman and CEO of Time Warner, has revealed that there are now 15 million account holders for digital content ownership ecosystem UltraViolet, a 65 per cent increase from the end of 2012, but admitted that awareness needed to improve. Bewkes made the comments on an earnings call to discuss the company’s Q3 2013 results.

Bewkes said that in home entertainment, Warner Bros. was making progress in improving the user experience for its digital products. “One of the most important initiatives on that front is UltraViolet, the industry standard designed to make it easier for consumers to access their content on multiple platforms. UltraViolet ended 2013 with more than 15 million accounts. That’s a 65 per cent increase from the end of 2012. Awareness still needs to improve, but the consumers who use UltraViolet love it. And we think more and more consumers will enjoy its benefits as retail support continues to increase.”

Bewkes pointed out the impact that improving experience was having on consumer behaviour with almost 50 per cent growth in electronic sales for the industry last year. “That helped drive an increase in domestic consumer spending on home entertainment for the first time in eight years. With UltraViolet now available in nine countries outside the US and plans to expand further, we’re hopeful we’ll also see stabilisation in international home video revenue over the next few years. That’s a perfect segue to our third strategic objective, which is international growth,” he advised.

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