ClearPlay success not sudden

The idea's the thing.

It sprang out of the fertile techno mind of Salt Lake native Matt Jarman seven years ago, when he was all of 24 years old.

What this world needed, Matt decided, now that the basics such as fire, the wheel and video recorders had been invented, was a filter that would allow people to watch movies on their home recorders with any language, violence and sex they found objectionable tuned out.

Invent that, and the world would beat a path to your door.

And he was right, although who could have guessed it would take so long?

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Bill Aho smiles at the "sudden" success of ClearPlay, which is the name Matt Jarman decided to give to the movie filter his idea turned into.

Bill is sitting down in his Park City home for something like his millionth media interview this month. He's talked about ClearPlay to reporters from Poland, from Peru, from Australia, from the BBC in England. That's in addition to all the attention from here in America. ClearPlay has been featured in daily newspapers from coast to coast. USA Today gave it almost a full page of play. The product from Utah has been featured on television on CNN, MSNBC, Inside Edition, Access Hollywood, and last week Matt Jarman sat down with Matt Lauer on NBC's "The Today Show."

All because a little company called RCA decided to include ClearPlay filters in a new line of its DVD players and at the end of April placed said players in a little retail chain called Wal-Mart.

As Bill puts it, "ClearPlay suddenly became very interesting."

Bill is the CEO of ClearPlay. It's not exactly like being CEO of, say, IBM. For the past three-plus years, ever since Bill went to work for the company full time, it's pretty much been just Bill, Matt's big brother Lee (the company CFO), Matt and Matt's idea.

Bill has traipsed the country with nothing but that idea in his briefcase. He has talked to manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, lawyers, movie directors, more lawyers and enough venture capitalists to buy Central America.