News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

May 1, 2008

itunes_store

Studios cue up simultaneous releases for DVDs, downloads

Posted May. 1, ’08, 8:25 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

iTunes Movie StoreYesterday afternoon, our own Mr. Dahlquist reported that Warner Bros. announced their intentions to make new releases available on the iTunes Store on the very same day as they were released on DVD. But that’s not the whole story: this morning, Apple announced that the same would be true for films from 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios. For those of you playing along at home, that’s all the other major studios and a few others thrown in for good measure.

“We’re thrilled to bring iTunes Store customers new films for purchase day-and-date with the DVD release,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We think movie fans will love being able to buy their favorites from major and independent studios.”

Of course, the devil is in the details here: note that Apple’s press release very clearly says this applies to movies for purchase. Nothing is said particularly about rentals, leaving us to wonder if they’re still subject to the sort-of 30 day lag time. I’d certainly hope not: I think rentals are the real potential here, especially as new releases remain priced at $15.

I did a quick check of the titles touted in Apple’s press release: while The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is available only for purchase, American Gangster can be bought or rented. Of the handful of other titles featured in the rotating banners at the top of the Movies page, most were only available for purchase, not for rental.

So while this might be good news, it’s still not quite the news that I would hope for. I wonder how close they are to meeting their 1000 titles for rental goal now.


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