Rich Fiscus
3 Dec 2007 18:58
News Corp. is close to finishing negotiations with Apple to make their movies available on iTunes next year according to an analyst who watches Apple closely.
This would make News Corp., owner of 20th Century Fox and various broadcasting operations including the Fox broadcast network, only the second major content owner to sell new release theatrical movies through Apple's online store. Currently Disney is the only major studio making new relases available on iTunes, which almost doesn't count since Apple CEO Steve Jobs is on the studio's board of directors, in addition to being a major shareholder.
While studios aren't exactly lining up to make their movies available through iTunes, that doesn't mean they're not looking at how consumers already prefer their video. Earlier this year 20th Century Fox included a special version of the new release 'Live Free or Die Hard' along with the standard DVD version so that consumers can copy it to a portable player. Warner Bros. made a similar move with the DVD release of the latest installment of the Harry Potter franchise, offering a portable media player friendly version which can be downloaded for free.
Source: Video Business