ultraviolet-logo-13272_222x231Amazon may become one of the players in the Ultraviolet movie and TV locker consortium, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Seattle-based company is reportedly in talks with “at least three” studios to join the consortium, which manages a digital locker service that pulls together streaming movies from a variety of different sources.

The Ultraviolet system was created by movie studios that wanted to reduce how much power Apple had in the world of distributing media, since it’s designed to band together different marketplaces, rather than cede all power to a single company with one store. Adding Amazon to the mix could be a boost to Ultraviolet’s popularity, since it’s the second largest player in the online movie sales and rental business, behind Apple.

People can add videos to their Ultraviolet locker by purchasing digital downloads from a handful of companies, or by redeeming codes that get packed in with physical releases of DVDs and Blu-ray discs. The service hasn’t proved all that popular since it launched four years ago, in part because of a lack of content and technical issues.

Connecting Amazon purchases to Ultraviolet adds a new layer of possibilities for both consumers and companies. For example, Amazon could allow users to download movies they purchase on disc in much the same way the company offers a similar service for some CDs.

Of course, making that deal may pay off for studios in the short term, but it’s unclear that backing Amazon over Apple would be such a boon to their business. After all, Amazon is currently in the midst of a months-long contract dispute with Hachette Book Group in a move to try and extract concessions from the publisher on the price of e-books. Movie studios may find themselves in a similar position years down the road.

Still, the deal is not a sure thing. Amazon reportedly wants multiple Hollywood studios signed on before it makes the move to Ultraviolet, and it’s still not clear how the company’s media library will integrate with the Ultraviolet locker service yet.

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