French rentailer develops download drive
By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 8/10/2007
AUG. 10 | The largest video rental operator in France has developed a new system for renting movies for extended periods using a portable hard drive that customers can load up at an in-store kiosk then plug into a docking station connected to their TV set.
The first-generation drives, which are about the size of a BlackBerry device, can store up to 14GB of data, enough to hold about 40 movies at DVD quality.
The movies are encrypted and remain available to the user for 30 days, after which they become inaccessible.
The specially designed kiosks can load six movies onto the drive in about 90 seconds, according to Pierre Cerisier, CEO of video buying group GDS, a partner in the new venture.
Users pay for the movies using a prepaid card, and revenue is split between the studios and the retailer, with a cut going to the new venture, Moovyplay.
Moovyplay was developed by Paris-based CPFK Holding, which operates 2,300 rental locations across France, including stores and vending machines, under three retail banners: Video Futur, Cinebank and Video Pilote.
According to Cerisier, the system can hold up to 3,000 movies, allowing rental stores to expand the breadth of their inventory without adding physical stock.
Moovyplay has so far licensed titles from Warner Bros. and New Line and is in talks with all of the major U.S. studios, Cerisier said. It also has content from nine major French distributors, including Seven Sept. and BAC.
Plans call for a 13-store test of the system beginning in October or November. Rollout across France will follow in the spring if the test goes well. Beyond that, the company hopes to expand into Spain, Italy, Germany, the U.K., and ultimately to the U.S., Cerisier said.
The portable drives are being made by Archos, a leading manufacturer of portable media players in Europe. The drives, home docking station and HDMI cable will sell for 140 Euros ($192).
The key to the system is a centralized storage and distribution network that allows any title on the system to be delivered through any kiosk. The network is being managed by Akamai, a leading provider of so-called edge-storage technology widely used around the world to expedite content distribution on the Internet.
CPFK will establish a central bank for the system, which will issue the prepaid cards and audit all transactions. Participating studios will have their own secure access to the audit system so they can track activity in real time.
The audit platform was provided by Webnet, an e-commerce service provider in France.
Encoding and encryption of the movies is being handled by MPO International.
“The two biggest issues for the studios have been security and the ability to audit the transactions,” Cerisier said. “That’s why we are establishing our own bank and our own storage [and distribution] platform.”
Development of the system was funded entirely by CPFK, to the tune of $40 million, according to Cerisier, who serves as VP of Moovyplay.
Cerisier attended the Entertainment Merchants Assn. convention in Las Vegas last month, where he held conversations with the studios. But he said there was no firm timetable yet for a U.S. rollout.
“We wouldn’t roll it out there ourselves,” he said. “We would license the technology to someone who wanted to do it there. We just want to maintain the bank and manage the financial transactions, not operate all the equipment.”
