AppleInsider StaffWalt Disney chief executive Robert Iger said on Tuesday the company sold 125,000 movie downloads worth $1 million in revenue through Apple Computer's iTunes Store during the offering's first week, Reuters is reporting.
Walt Disney Pictures and three other studios it owns — Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films — were the only participants in last week's gala iTunes movie store roll-out, which took place during an elaborate media event orchestrated by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs out in California.
Due to quibbles over licensing fees, other major studios have so far decided to observe Apple's iTunes movie download service from the sidelines.
Disney's movies become available on the iTunes Store the same day they are released on DVD, with new releases priced at $12.99 during their first week of availability, and $14.99 thereafter. Older "library titles" fetch just $9.99.
iTunes customers can purchase and download the flicks to watch on their computers and iPods, and will soon be able to beam them wirelessly to their flat screen televisions with Apple’s upcoming iTV digital media hub.
Analysts have said Apple's iTunes movie store and iTV media hub are just the start of what will be a multi-year assault aimed at capturing the living room.
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117 Comments
this is great news
Madness!
Well, I think the movie offering is a great start, but as it NOW stands it interests me not at all
* Low selection (this will grow--but Netflix is unbeatable).
* Lower than DVD quality. A 16:9 DVD movie is 720x480. An iTunes movie is 640x360. Really. Not bad, not noticeable.
* Can't burn to DVD, so can't take a movie to a friend's house without a video-capable iPod and cable.
* No special features.
* With all of the above the price would have to be much lower than DVD, but it's not.
I understand this is just a start, though. These things take time. One day the selection will be great, the quality will be HD, and I will have the 'net connection to download those massive files
Meanwhile, iTunes TV just got pretty good! Higher res! I can watch Galactica on iTunes FAR cheaper than I could get the sci-fi channel via cable.
I wonder how many movies Amazon has downloaded/rented in its first two weeks?
i bet amazon sold more.
We'll find out soon enough. If they did in fact sell more, they will have to say so. Silence likely equals less. Anyway, I'll take your bet, and say Apple sold more (I'll even disclose they sold none to me. I have an HDTV, so I'll not be buying something lower than DVD quality).