Apple deal could kill DVD salesItunes movie release dates sharpenedBy Stewart Meagher: Thursday, 01 May 2008, 11:53 AMAPPLE IS EXPECTED to announce later today that future feature film release dates on its media marketplace, the Itunes Store, will now coincide with retail DVD release dates.The groundbreaking move is expected to involve the likes of Fox, Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal, Sony, Lionsgate and New Line. MGM is conspicuous by its absence.No official figures are available as of yet on current volumes of sale, but the announcement later today, predicted by the Hollywood Reporter, should include the relevant data, and we'll bring that to the party as soon as we have it.The move is expected to bring pressure to bear on the likes of Amazon's Unbox service and Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace, and we fully expect similar deals to be hammered out by all major competitors lickety split.Makers of DVD cases should soon be looking for something more useful to do with their time.
A swift move to digital download supremacy...But it won't kill DVD immediately as most people still like to own a hard copy...Just the same with CD's...Even though people are buying less as others jump on to digital distribution...They still buying cd's...