Ultraviolet, the movie locker in the cloud, is shutting down. The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), which has kept Ultraviolet running since it launched in 2011, announced that the service will close on July 31.

Ultraviolet currently has over 30 million users who store over 300 million movies and TV shows on the service.

In an interview with Variety, the DECE said that users should not delete their movie collections. Instead, it's recommending that customers make sure their libraries are connected to a retailer to allow for continued access going forward. Those retailers include Fandango Now, Kalidescope, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Verizon Fios, and Vudu.

DECE president Wendy Aylsworth said that the decision to discontinue Ultraviolet was because of the move towards subscription services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. However, the elephant in the room is certainly Disney and its Movies Anywhere service. The company was the only major Hollywood studio not to join 20th Century Fox, Universal, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, and BBC Worldwide in joining the DECE. Instead, it launched its own service, which could be connected to digital retailers including iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play - unlike Ultraviolet.

"The marketplace for collecting entertainment content was very small when Ultraviolet started," Aylsworth said. "It was siloed into walled gardens at the time." Nevertheless, Aylsworth does not want the closure to be seen as a response to Movies Anywhere, saying that the decision "doesn't really have anything to do with [it],"

Speaking to Variety, VP of Vudu Scott Blanksteen said that customers would not lose their movie collections. They will be "able to enjoy Vudu content as they have been and continue to access any and all movies and TV shows they have saved in their Vudu library, even after the shutdown of the Ultraviolet service." Since Vudu is the biggest retailer associated with Ultraviolet, this will be reassuring news.

The DECE will officially inform users of the closure today, with an updated FAQ being published on the Ultraviolet website this morning to hopefully answer all questions users have.

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