The movie business is about to change, as Apple Computer and Amazon.com Inc. are in the final stages of building online services that give consumers access to thousands of movies on demand. Apple next
week is set to unveil a distribution deal with Walt Disney Co., while Amazon is expected to reveal agreements with three other studios. Both companies declined to comment, but plans were confirmed by
people familiar with them. Details like pricing and the extent of the online movie catalogues are still unclear. So why is this a big deal? Movielink, CinemaNow, MovieFlix and others saturate the Web,
providing consumers with the opportunity to download and watch movies from the major movie studios. Apple and Amazon are both well-known content brands that have a history of helping the
masses--including technophobes--become comfortable with technology shifts. The smaller players have been unable to gain traction, indicating that the public may need a trusted brand to help ease them
out of the DVD generation. Traditional media companies have little choice but to embrace the digital revolution, which will likely undermine established money-making events for studios, like big
opening weekends, DVD sales and broadcast deals.
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