September 25, 2006
Hackingnetflix.com - Wal-Mart may be single-handedly blocking the major studios from selling their movies on Apple's iTunes online store, the New York Post indicated today (Friday). "We all want to be in the Apple business," an unnamed executive at a major studio told the Post, noting that Apple's pricing -- $9.99 to $12.99 -- is lower than Wal-Mart's. According to the newspaper which cited other studio executives, Wal-Mart has sent "cases and cases" of DVDs back to Disney, the only studio selling movies on the iTunes site, and has threatened to retaliate if other studios do business with Apple.
Wal-Mart, which claims that its stores account for 40 percent of all DVD's sold in the U.S., has been using its clout to dissuade Hollywood's major studios from cooperating with Apple's iTunes Music Store, which plans to sell them online. According to Business Week Wal-Mart has sent executives to Hollywood in hopes of blocking any deal between Apple and the studios. Wal-Mart has denied the report. Apple is expected to announce a movie download service within the next two weeks, at about the same time that it is expected to unveil a new, wider-screen video iPod. New movies are expected to go for $14.99; older ones, for $9.99. So far, however, Apple has reportedly only signed up one studio, Disney, where Apple chairman Steve Jobs is the company's largest shareholder.
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