The Ultraviolet format is almost ready to go live, but Apple and Disney have yet to sign on.

A report from Pocket-lint suggests that the Ultraviolet movie format is close to officially going commercial. For consumers, this means that for every Blu-ray and DVD theyve purchased over the years, theyll also unlock a cloud-stored digital version that can be streamed on up to 12 registered Ultraviolet devices. All they need is the UPC symbol in order to register their movie.

But for those who dont want to purchase discs, there are plans to introduce a pay model that simply offers the rights to the digital Ultraviolet version. However both models are reportedly backed by all but one of the studios, almost every major consumer electronics manufacturer, several major retailers, and over 70 other technology companies.

Disney and Apple have yet to sign on.

All but one [of the major studios] have signed on… And that doesnt mean that they wont, said Danny Kaye, executive vice president of Global Research amp; Technology Strategy at Fox. He was referring to Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment who he believes will ultimately offer UV versions of its catalog.

And what of Apple? Surely the company has nothing to lose given that it doesnt directly sell movie and TV episodes on physical discs. If anything, Apple would simply offer permanent cloud storage for its digital video so that users can stream anytime the want. Of course, were talking about Apple who seemingly loves control over all aspects of its devices, software and the accompanying multimedia.

Unsurprisingly, Apple has resisted in shifting over to the UV side… possibly in favor of its own video cloud offering. That also doesnt mean they wont, said Kaye. From my perspective, when youre well established you sometimes take a wait and see.

He added that Apple may not wait for too long once its rivals start getting way ahead in the game. If you just take smartphones as an example, Android now enjoys quite a market advantage, Kaye said. And the same things going to happen in tablets. We also have all the other hardware thats a part of this ecosystem – the majority of hardware and software companies will create very strong competition, just like it has with Blu-ray. And well see what happens as we go forward.

[Ultraviolet is] one of the largest consortia ever, especially across industries, he added. And when that happens, you succeed.