Amazon gets Deals with UltraViolet movie system

An Amazon.com executive said on Tuesday that the retailer has signed a deal with a Hollywood studio to sell movies that can be downloaded from an online “locker” system five studios have put together.

The extent of Amazon.com Inc.’s support of the UltraViolet online locker system is unclear. But the deal signals that Amazon is at least open to trying it. Studios are hopeful that UltraViolet is attractive enough to consumers that they keep buying movies rather than renting, which is less profitable for studios.

If Amazon fully joins the system, it would hugely boost UltraViolet’s chance of becoming a mainstream technology.

“We’re excited about additional possibilities,” said Bill Carr, executive Vice-president of Digital Media at Amazon.

Mr. Carr didn’t name the studio. He was speaking on a panel about UltraViolet at the International Consumer Electronics Show, which opened Tuesday in Las Vegas.

UltraViolet launched late last year. The idea is to let consumers play purchased movies, whether downloads or as physical DVDs, on any device. A customer who buys an UltraViolet-enabled DVD can enter a code online to make the movie available as a download to an iPhone or PC.

So far, there are only 19 UltraViolet-enabled discs on sale, and many people who have tried to take advantage of the online feature were dismayed at how difficult it was. For instance, playing a movie on an iPad requires the creation of two new online accounts.

Mitch Singer, president of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, the consortium of movie and consumer electronics companies that created UltraViolet, acknowledged the problems but said most have been fixed.

“We built this great house and we had a great foundation ... and in our excitement to move in, we kind of moved in and there was some carpentry left to be done,” he said on the panel.

UltraViolet is set for mass adoption next holiday season, he said. Representatives of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video on the panel agreed. Among the major studios, only The Walt Disney Co. has not joined the consortium.

Analyst Jan Dawson of Ovum said the biggest challenge to UltraViolet comes from the top competitors in online retail for entertainment- Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. Each of them maintains its own online “lockers” for purchases. If Amazon really commits to UltraViolet, that would be a “total game changer,” Dawson said.

Hollywood wants badly for UltraViolet to succeed, and hopes it will lift sales of digital copies of movies, which in the U.S. rose 9 per cent to just $554 million last year, a fraction of the $18 billion spent on home videos overall.

By allowing consumers to store and manage digital collections online with playback on multiple devices, studios are trying to ease concerns surrounding the limitations of digital movie ownership.

In further moves to demonstrate the growth of the system, UltraViolet’s backers also announced several partnerships with consumer electronics companies that will enable playback on other devices.

Warner Bros.’s online movie service, Flixster, will be installed this year on certain Panasonic flat-panel TVs and Blu-ray players that connect to the Internet. Flixster gives consumers access to all of the movies they have stored in their UltraViolet lockers, even if they come from another participating studio.

Samsung also said that it plans this year to sell Blu-ray players that can recognize discs from a consumer’s existing library and add them to their UltraViolet accounts for a nominal fee, using software developed by Flixster and Rovi Corp.

A Flixster spokesman said the cost of converting discs and which titles would be available from which studios would be announced in the coming months.

Venus Williams pulls out of Australian Open

Venus Williams has withdrawn from the Australian Open, prolonging her absence from the tennis tour because of an autoimmune disease that can cause fatigue and joint pain.

The seven-time Grand Slam title winner announced Monday on Twitter and on her website that she wouldn’t play in the year’s first major tournament, which starts Monday. She added, though, that she plans to be back in action next month.

Williams hasn’t played competitively since August 29 at the U.S. Open. Two days later, she pulled out of that tournament, revealing that she’d been diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome.

“I regret to announce that I am withdrawing from the 2012 Australian Open. After several months of training and treatment, I am making steady progress to top competitive form. My diet and fitness regimen have allowed me to make great strides in terms of my health and I am very close to being ready to return to WTA competition,” Williams said in a posting on her website Monday. “I have every intention to return to the circuit in February.”

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said Williams was “very disappointed” that she was not able to play in Melbourne.

“She had hoped she’d be further along in her preparation but is not quite ready for Grand Slam competition,” Tiley said in an email to The Associated Press. “She’s an amazing champion and she’s had a tough year battling illness and injury. We wish her all the best and look forward to seeing her back in Australia soon.”

Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki, a former doubles partner of Williams, said the American’s health must come first. “She’s been unlucky with the virus thing,” Wozniacki said after her second-round win Tuesday at the Sydney International. “I’m not completely sure what it is exactly, but the most important thing is the health.

“Tennis, it’s a game. I’m sure she’ll come back and fight and try to come back to the top again. But most of all, the most important thing is that you’re healthy. Hopefully she’ll be 100 percent healthy by February.”

The 31-year-old American is a former No. 1 who is 100th in this week’s WTA rankings. She’s dealt with a series of health problems, including a hip injury that forced her to withdraw from last year’s Australian Open, and a left knee injury that kept her on the sideline between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2010.

Since reaching the semifinals at the 2010 U.S. Open, Williams has played only 11 matches.

After winning her opener at Flushing Meadows in August which was Williams’ first match in two months she withdrew shortly before her second-round match there.

At that time, she described the way she’d been feeling as “energy-sucking, and I just couldn’t play pro tennis.”

Her younger sister Serena, whose 13 Grand Slam titles include five at the Australian Open, badly sprained her left ankle at a tournament in Brisbane last week. It’s not clear whether Serena will be able to play at the Australian Open, although she appeared to be training well Tuesday at Melbourne Park and free of any major concerns about her ankle.

Missile-launcher Raonic shoots downs Tipsarevic

The Canadian bombed his higher-ranked opponent with 35 aces to clinch the Chennai Open

It was over all too anti-climactically, as a routine forehand return sank into the net on match-point, but for over three hours Canadian Milos Raonic and top-seeded Janko Tipsarevic refused to yield to the other's strengths.

It took three gruelling tie-breaks to identify the winner, and in the end it was the 21-year-old Raonic, who took home his second ATP title following a 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 7-6(4) win over the World No. 9 Serbian.

Raonic bombed his higher-ranked opponent with 35 aces to clinch an over-three-hour crap-shoot that witnessed nary a break of serve, and proved — if at all proof was needed — his suitability to inhabit the top-most echelons of the great game.

Absorbing fare

Such was the quality of the fare that even Tipsarevic's comely partner – sitting pretty and on the edge in a slinky white number in the player's enclosure – failed to distract from what was happening on court.

She pumped her fists in tandem with her husband, but it was all to no end – beauty doesn't always save the world, notwithstanding what Tipsarevic's tattoo has to say.

Tipsarevic, though, made all the right moves in the first set, saving four of four break-points to enforce a tie-break, in which he effected a mini-break (as Raonic fluffed a backhand volley) on the eighth point.

He then took the lead when another backhand from the Canadian missile launcher found a resting place in the net.

A set down and facing a top-ten adversary in a title clash, Raonic appeared far from being overawed.

He began the second set wading into Tipsarevic's serve, and had him 15-40 down before squandering his advantage.

Holds of serve continued to be the norm, although it could be safely inferred from their pattern of attainment (Tipsarevic scratching to hold, Raonic blasting his way ahead) what course the match would eventually take.

Raonic equalised the set score when he nailed the second tie-break (after racing to a 6-3 lead) on his second set-point, blitzing a 220kmph serve past the hapless Tipsarevic.

The decider commenced in a manner most unnatural. Raonic found himself facing three break-points, saved them all, extending the holding pattern that had been the hallmark of the match so far.

Tipsarevic paid him back in kind, saving a break-point in the eighth game to hold for 4-4.

Strategic serving by the Serb, coupled with the nukes that Raonic unleashed, ensured that the decider too would see rightful culmination in a tie-break – however unfair that might have seemed.

The final tie-break, however, turned out to be a dud. Raonic galloped to 5-0 (thanks to an ace, a few unforced errors from his opponent and two service winners), and a deficit such as this was always going to be impossible to overcome against a serve that contained the firepower of a truckload of TNT.

Tepid forehand

Tipsarevic, to his credit saved two match-points (to move from 2-6 to 4-6) in the ultimate tie-break, but gave in on his own serve when a tepid forehand return scudded into the net, to give Raonic a well-earned win in three hours and 13 minutes.

“It's a good feeling to know that if you take care of your serve, you will be in the tie-break. It's just my second tournament win and this is an amazing feeling,” said Raonic later. “I hate losing more than I love winning,” the Canadian revealed his motivating factor.

The result: Singles: Final: Milos Raonic (Can) bt JankoTipsarevic (Srb) 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 7-6(4).