Cloud-based digital locker Movies Anywhere has linked up to DirecTV.
Movies Anywhere, a collaboration between Disney, Warner Bros., Universal and Sony Pictures, allows users to access their movie purchases across a range of retail channels.
In addition to DirecTV, the service also supports purchases made through Apple, Google Play, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Microsoftg, Comcast Xfinity, FandangoNOW and Verizon Fios TV.
To promote the new feature, Movies Anywhere is offering a free 4K Warner Bros. movie to customers the first time they connect a new retailer to the service. Users can choose up from five WB titles: Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Smallfoot, The Meg, The Matrix and Crazy Rich Asians.
Movies Anywhere recently added a co-viewing feature that allows users to connect up to 10 friends for virtual pandemic-era watch parties. The feature requires all 10 of those friends to actually own the film that’s being watched. But it does allow the arranging customer to loan out the title to three friends.
Movies Anywhere is emerging in the aftermath of two competing digital locker services: Disney Movies Anywhere, and UltraViolet, the cloud-based service that was supported by most major studios not named Disney.
That’s not to say Movies Anywhere represents an entire unification of the Hollywood studio system—Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM still aren’t onboard.
