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Apple Inks Online Film-Rental Deal With Fox

Posted on: Thursday, 27 December 2007, 12:00 CST

US-based Apple has signed a deal with media conglomerate News Corp's Twentieth Century Fox studio to offer a new online video-on-demand service, the Financial Times has reported.

The agreement is expected to be announced at the Macworld show in January 2008. As a part of the agreement, the studio's movies will be made available online through Apple's iTunes store.

Through the new service, the users will be able to rent the DVD releases of Fox movies that can be played for a limited time through the iTunes store. Fox also intends to release DVDs compatible with Apple's digital right management system to enable consumers to play it on iPod or other Apple devices.

The iTunes store currently sells movies from Walt Disney and older titles from Paramount Pictures, which can be kept permanently by the users. Apple is also reportedly in talks with Sony Pictures, Warner Bros and Paramount for making their new releases available on iTunes, the Financial Times said.

In November, Apple's partnership with NBC came to an end after NBC refused to renew its contract to provide digital content to iTunes. NBC, with over 1,500 hours of programming on the iTunes store, was Apple's single largest partner for digital video.

NBC later launched Hulu.com in collaboration with News Corp to compete with iTunes for the online studio-produced TV and films market.

Source: ComputerWire daily updates

Source: Datamonitor

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