The home entertainment journal Video Business has reported that The Walt Disney Company is planning their own digital delivery service, named Keychest, with a view to bringing on demand content to consumers, primarily focusing at first on the Studio’s “dedicated groups of fans”.

The Keychest service will allow for playing various digital or packaged media on a number of different devices, storing the content on a “digital cloud” that can be accessed at any time. Market research firm In-Stat’s principle analyst Gerry Kaufhold notes that the program could take some time to catch on, but that the Studio will “be able to get some percent of the Disney fan base to use it because it provides portability of their content and permanence of their content. For Disney, it’ll work, and if it works for Disney, there’ll be others trying it out too”.

Other companies, including Sony, Microsoft and Best Buy, are also working on their own system, the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, which counts all the studios except Disney among its number, in a bid to control digital distribution of their content more directly. It is thought Disney might have the lead if Keychest makes it to market first.