AppleInsider StaffWalt Disney Co. said Thursday it has sold nearly a half million films through Apple Computer's iTunes store since announcing the distribution deal a little less than two months ago.
Disney said it expects movie downloads to generate $50 million in added revenue during the first year of the program.
It started by making 75 movies available on iTunes service in Sept. and recently announced plans to add the No. 1 animated film of the year, Cars, and the No. 1 film of the year, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
With half a million sales in just under eight weeks, customers are purchasing approximately 62,500 movies from Apple's iTunes store each week, or just shy of 9,000 each day.
"This underlines the strength and uniqueness of our film library, and indicates there is a consumer appetite for movie downloads that complements demand for DVDs," said president and chief executive Robert Iger.
Thus far, Disney is the only major motion picture studio who has agreed to sell its films through the ubiquitous iTunes service. However, News Corp's. Fox Entertainment Group and independent Lions Gates are reported to be in ongoing negotiations with Apple about making their catalog of films available to iTunes customers.
In beating Wall Street's expectations, Disney said earnings per share for the fourth quarter increased 89 percent to $0.36, compared to $0.19 in the year-ago quarter. Profits doubled from $379 million to $782 million.
"Disney had a spectacular year, posting record revenues, record net income, and record cash flow," Iger said. "It is a result of the incredible creativity at our company."
Iger added that the company is close to wrapping up a digital distribution deal with Comcast that would likely result in the delivery of new shows to both the provider's cable and online customers.
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71 Comments
With numbers like this, deals with other studios are just a matter of time.
Wonder why HBO is waiting so long, leaving money on the table?
Looks like iTV will be a big hit.
Well, you have to give it to Jobs. Selling Pixar back in exchange for majority stockholder status went a long way toward getting this deal done. Kids movies probably make more sense right off the bat, too. Once the library starts getting competitive with Netflix and there are many more formats to view content on, sales will really take off. Yes, yes, I know it's just beginning. I still want to know what the real direction for iTV will be.
Holy mouse ears! Wasn't the one month mark something like 100k? Meaning that the growth trend is increasing? If so, rather gives lie to the analysis that "Oh, that's just early adopters and Apple fanatics..." that we saw in the first few weeks of this.
Yes, yes, I know it's just beginning. I still want to know what the real direction for iTV will be.
MacWorld SF Jan2007. It's gonna be mind-blowing. I'm setting my expectations very low, just so I guarantee I'll be surprised 8) ... But as mentioned previously in another thread, Macs and iPods are maxxed out for now, so processor bumps will not really be in the Keynote, just a short summary/ review perhaps. Something new is in the wind for 2007. Time for Apple to take the next step.
My HD is just the standard 150GB that came w/ my computer. I guess new Mac Pros are coming with, what, 500GB standard HDs?
I wonder what the recommended iTV config would be... as for me, I've had to delete a lot of free iTunes video content recently. Too much frickin' space lost to it. I still loves me them DVDs tho'.