Lionsgate CEO confirms iTunes movie downloads

There's no telling exactly how close we are to an Apple iTunes movie store service, but it's become pretty clear of late that we are due for one sooner or later. The greatest confirmation yet just came from the loose lips of Lionsgate's CEO, Jon Feltheimer, during a financial earnings conference call. He stated that the independent studio has reached digital delivery deals with CinemaNow, Movielink and iTunes, and Lionsgate president Steve Beeks followed that up by stating that iTunes movie downloads should be launched before the end of the year. Think Secret is also reporting that iTunes downloads will be rental only, but we're not sure where they're getting that info. Of course, Apple isn't the only company these days that can't seem to keep a lid on their movie download plans. Amazon was recently subjected to a drive-by Google-caching (pictured), revealing similar confiscatory rates to what we're used to by now for downloaded video content, and potential TV show downloads. Netflix is also hitting the rumor mill with reports of 1.5TB of server space being staked out at the high-end Isilon hosting service. Good times indeed for the download crowd, we just hope one of these providers can manage to drive the price down a bit.

[Thanks, CoreyTheGent]

Read - Lionsgate signs up for iTunes movie downloads
Read - Amazon movie download screenshots

[mike @ Aug 18th 2006 11:33AM]

amazon (mentioned), walmart, aol, and others are all soon to follow with video purchase/download of tv shows... not too far away from launching

[Ricky @ Aug 18th 2006 11:35AM]

"Netflix is also hitting the rumor mill with reports of 1.5TB of server space being staked out at the high-end Isilon hosting service"

That is just one and a half drives according to Hitachi.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6105515.html

[Wonderboy @ Aug 18th 2006 11:48AM]

My hope is less about getting prices down and more about getting decent quality downloads... I've got an HTPC hooked up to a 42" widescreen HDTV... no way I'm paying for a sub-VHS quality download.

[Portwineboy @ Aug 18th 2006 11:57AM]

"Netflix is also hitting the rumor mill with reports of 1.5TB of server space being staked out at the high-end Isilon hosting service"

Yea I'm not sure what they can accomplish with 1.5TB of space.

[glacia00 @ Aug 18th 2006 11:59AM]

I could help Netflix out with that. I've been burning DVDs to hard drive since I joined and just passed 1TB of movies myself.

I'm sticking to DVDs until I can DL full quality movies with extras. Plus I'd DL a movie from Al Qaida at 2X the price before giving money to Itune$.

[Menhir @ Aug 18th 2006 12:17PM]

More details about Amazon's video download service called Amazon Unbox, including screenshots and live links to the pages. It appears that you can rent and buy movies and TV shows, and also burn to DVD for archiving, but it will not be playable on a DVD player.

http://www.kokogiak.com/gedankengang/2006/08/amazons-digital-video-sneak-peek.html

[Alex Hillman @ Aug 18th 2006 12:23PM]

seriously...1.5 TB of space? ive got that of netflix archives alone, at 1000kbps bitrate (hardly dvd). I think they need to be looking for a bit bigger storage solution.

[mcepat @ Aug 18th 2006 12:26PM]

Apple finally catches up with the PC

Vongo, CinemaNow, Movielink

Ever heard of them?

I have been downloading movies with these services for years (maybe not vongo)

Sorry Apple too late and who cares

[Kevin Fox @ Aug 18th 2006 1:11PM]

More than likely they meant 1.5 Petabytes: http://www.google.com/search?q=1.5+petabytes+in+terabytes

[Brian Gyss @ Aug 18th 2006 3:38PM]

Isilon isn't a hosting company - they sell InfniBand enabled clustered storage SAN thingys.

http://www.isilon.com/

[Andrew Lyons @ Aug 18th 2006 4:17PM]

Reeltime Rentals will be beta testing their service starting next week and launching in Sept. It will offer movies and tv shows. Their technogy and video quality is amazing. Everyone should check it out.

[andrew k. from AZ @ Aug 18th 2006 5:19PM]

Welp, looks like it's time to look into upgrading the ol' broadband...

[Jesus in the Whale's Belly @ Aug 18th 2006 10:15PM]

"Sorry Apple too late and who cares"

All lay-people with a video ipod.

[saman @ Oct 3rd 2007 5:19AM]

yep apple is late

we do already have http://www.netflix.com and http://www.coplace.com