Sony plans to launch an 'iTunes' equivalent for movies online

April 3, 2005

Since Apple launched their
iTunes service, it has been the market leader for online music sales and continues to do very
well even until this day. Now Sony Pictures aims to try competing on
the movie market by launching an 'iTunes' equivalent for films. Sony plans
to release its top 500 films online that will be both playable on PCs as well as
compatible portable video devices, much like how those who download music from
iTunes can take it on the move with an iPod.

The movie industry is interested in this
approach also, in another move to encourage consumers to 'rent' movies
online rather than download them illegally from file sharing networks.
According to the movie industry, movie piracy has cost time $7 billion in
2003. In the last few months, the movie industry has been busy trying to
shut down many of the
major file sharing hubs as well as going after individuals
suspect of sharing out copyrighted movies.

While there are already legal movie download sites
available, they have a very limited amount of content and playback is limited to
the PC. Sony aims to overcome this issue by ensuring its movies can be
taken on the move. However, even though Sony has released its PlayStation
Portable (PSP) which uses Sony's own format for movies, it will only play back
content from physical
discs known as UMDs.

Sony is to make its top 500 films available digitally in the next year.

Michael Arrieta, senior vice president of
Sony Pictures, said at a US Digital Hollywood conference that it wanted to
create an "iTunes" for films.

Films will be put onto flash memory for mobiles over the next year, said Mr Arrieta, and it will develop its digital download services for films.

Movie studios are keen to stop illegal file-sharing on peer-to-peer nets and cash in on digital the download market.

Movie piracy cost the industry Â£3.7bn ($7bn) in 2003, according to analysts.

The movie industry body, the MPAA (Motion
Picture Association of America) has started a campaign of legal action
against operators of BitTorrent, eDonkey and DirectConnect peer-to-peer
networks.

If this service turns out to be a success, then while
Sony may not be the number one for its online music service, they may do well enough to be the
market leader for movies. Hopefully when its comes to its movie service,
they will use a popular codec such as DivX DRM or Window Media, rather than try
using some proprietary codec that requires consumers to purchase their own
players to play their movies.

Source: BBC News - Technology