Paramount and Apple iTunes (AAPL) have reportedly reached an agreement to sell movies through its download service, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal via MediaPost.
One missing element that was obvious through its absence was the selling of new movies, that has been a major sticking point in making deals between the studios and Apple. The agreement will only involve old releases and not the new. But even considering that, this is a big deal for Apple, as it needed to go beyond its deal with Disney (DIS) to grow in this space.
It's also possible, with Apple's announcement that they'll be offering AppleTv as a means of downloaded video being able to be watched on Television sets, that media companies will more readily embrace deals with Apple, as it will offer people more attractive ways of consuming the media downloads which will no longer need to be viewed on their computers alone.
Apple should land a few more deals if they and the studios are flexible enough to work around their differences. The fact that the deal with Paramount has gone through without Apple insisting upon new releases being part of the package is a good sign for consumers of online media downloads.
If the AppleTv service is accepted it could be a huge victory for all those involved. An easy way to watch downloaded shows on the television set has been the key factor in the slow adoption of video on demand. That will probably start to change quickly over the next year.
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