• Business Week, Monday, January 7, 2008 1:28 PM

Just when you thought media vendors were starting to turn their backs on Apple's iTunes, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is close to securing content deals with "most of the big [movie] studios." Film and television haven't proved to be nearly as big a hit for Apple and its suite of portable electronics devices as music was.

Again, pricing is the big sticking point: Jobs apparently was reticent to pay the studios more than $14 for each movie sold through iTunes, but insiders say the Apple CEO is now prepared to pay closer to the $17 wholesale price studios receive from DVD sales. Movie rentals are also a likely addition at $4 a pop.

Any such deal would be a huge help to Apple TV, which has been widely criticized for its limited film and television selection and the inability to buy content directly from the device. Apple TV also lacks the audio and visual quality of DVD players-Business Week expects these shortcomings to be addressed at Macworld.

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