‘Buy once and play on any of my devices’ is the mantra of consumers who have grown tired of all the different DRM schemes. Motorola Mobility Ventures is investing an unannounced amount in Catch Media, which has a licensed digital rights locker platform called Play Anywhere.
It said Catch Media’s registry, tracking, routing and clearinghouse technology, together with its post-acquisition license, provides retailers, carriers and consumer electronics vendors the ability to offer their customers legal convenient access to their digital content from disparate devices, whether smartphones, tablets, set-tops, connected TVs or other connected devices inside and outside the home.
In Q4 2010 Best Buy Europe used Catch Media’s technology in a service called ‘Music Anywhere’ that The Carphone Warehouse offers in the UK. It’s expected to be rolled out in the US in early 2011 in cooperation with the music industry.
‘Instant and easy access to music and video collections from any device, any place and at any time has become a necessity for consumers,’ said Mony Hassid, managing director of Motorola Mobility Ventures. He said Catch Media’s B2B platform gives consumers ‘the ubiquitous access they crave while compensating the content owners, content distributors and every other party that contributes to the ecosystem.’
Yaacov Ben-Yaacov, co-founder and CEO of Catch Media, said the technology is aimed at cellular carriers, cablecos and telcos and, with Motorola Mobility’s support, ‘will enable our platform to be more tightly integrated across their devices.’
Ari Emanuel, Co-CEO of WME Entertainment, an investor in Catch Media and a large Hollywood talent agency, said Catch Media offers consumers maximum convenience ‘while ensuring that all the stakeholders in the process, including the actors, directors and content owners, share in the revenues generated.’