EMA Digital Council addresses digital delivery

SUPERMARKET & DRUG CHANNEL GUIDE: Grocery channel looks toward MOD kiosks

By Wendy Wilson -- Video Business, 5/5/2008

MAY 5 | SUPERMARKET CHANNEL GUIDE: The grocery channel is redefining its relationship with video by making the move toward rental kiosks; eventually, that could include manufactured-on-demand kiosks as well. Rather than focusing specifically on supermarkets, the Entertainment Merchants Assn. has decided to address the practical problems of the overall home entertainment digital delivery business, regardless of retailers’ class of trade, through the work of its Digital Council, which was launched last year.

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Mark Fisher, VP of membership and strategic initiatives for EMA, points out that all the MOD companies, such as Polar Frog Digital and TitleMatch Entertainment Group, have some level of involvement in the Digital Council. Industry observers expect the MOD contingent to have an increased presence in the digital category going forward.

EMA’s Grocers Council is currently inactive, but the Digital Council could have an impact on the future of home entertainment in supermarkets, as well as drugstores and convenience stores, if the MOD business takes hold within them.

The Content Delivery & Storage Assn., formerly IRMA, recently joined with EMA’s Digital Council in a strategic alliance. The CDSA has been concerned with some of the same issues as EMA, particularly metadata standards for digital delivery via the Internet. CDSA members, largely replicators, have found that differing standards result in production difficulties.

“We believe we are way out front of this, and we, as an industry, want to get a handle on these standards while the business is still in its infancy,” Fisher says.

In a series of meetings held by member companies that include studios, retailers such as Netflix and CinemaNow, and aggregators such as Rentrak, the Digital Council is working to address the changing needs of digital retailers in three key areas:

• Metadata standardization: Every release comes with marketing information unique to it, but with each studio using a different standard to include those marketing details, retailers are forced to look up something as simple as a film’s title differently across suppliers. Fisher says that establishing a standard format to present that information is the Digital Council’s top priority, a goal shared by member studios, retailers and others.

• Education: The group is responsible for hosting EMA’s Digital Day conference at the trade association’s convention in Las Vegas on June 26. This year will mark the first EMA Digi Awards, honoring both digital retailers and digital content.

• Common language: Digital developments can be confusing, so the Digital Council is developing a glossary specific to audio/visual delivery to help retailers speak intelligently about the business. Fisher says that while a guide to industry lingo can currently be accessed by the industry, a Wiki has been established that will likely be opened to the public at the convention this summer.

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