Digital locker service Movies Anywhere has officially launched a new feature, Screen Pass, that lets users share select video titles in their libraries with their contacts.
Using the Movies Anywhere app, users can select friends, family members or hangers-on that they want to lend a title to. Once notified, that lucky individual has 14 days to use the Screen Pass app to start the movie and complete. Like most movie rentals, once initiated, the viewer has 72 hours to complete the viewing.
Movies Anywhere is the digital locker service jointly operated by Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures and 20th Century Fox. It provides users a central location to store movies and TV shows purchased across iTunes, Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Xfinity and many other online retail locations. Movies Anywhere was originally initiated by Disney—its scope broadened when it swallowed up the participation of rival companies that previously backed now-defunct cloud locker UltraViolet.
Also read: DirecTV Links Up to Movies Anywhere
Movies Anywhere has had the Screen Pass feature in beta for most of the pandemic. It’s another means for the digital locker service to increase use of its app.
The consortium said that during the beta, 45% of users said they’ve used the Screen Pass feature because someone else had sent them a Screen Pass viewing invite. And 30% of those who have accepted an invite are new to Movies Anywhere.
Screen Pass said that six titles represented 9% of all shared films during the beta: Ready Player One, The Prestige, Tombstone, The Mule, Bad Times at El Royale and Jaws. Movies Anywhere said more than 80% of the titles in its covered library are eligible to participate in Screen Pass.
