Digital

As home entertainment continues to launch new online services and technology develops, the BVA is working with its members to develop and encourage legal digital downloading.

Our members’ content is now widely available through numerous digital channels and there are currently two legal ways to access content digitally – ‘download-to-own’ or ‘video on-demand’:

Download To Own is a concept of legally downloading content to your computer via a network such as the internet. Generally to obtain content in this way a user must have a broadband connection and an account from an internet distribution company. Download to Own files are saved on the computer hard drive, typically in AVI format, and are compressed using MPEG-4 or DivX compression formats.

Video on-demand systems either stream content through a set-top box, allowing viewing in real time, or download it to a device such as a computer, digital video recorder, personal video recorder or portable media player for viewing at any time. The majority of cable – and telco – based television providers offer both VOD streaming, such as Pay-per-view, whereby a user buys or selects a movie or television program and it begins to play on the television set almost instantaneously, or downloading to a DVR rented from the provider, for viewing for the future.

The BVA is encouraging its members and retailers to assist in building a solid structure for digital sales reporting. 

Here is a selection of legal download sites currently available on the web.

Film

Television

Funded by the UK Film Council we are the first country to launch a unique search engine www.findanyfilm.com. This will allow film fans to find out whether a title is available on cinema, video, TV or digital platforms and allows the video to book tickers, buy or rent on Blu-ray or DVD. Most importantly, this will guarantee the best quality viewing experience every time, as every film is from a legitimate source.