allow ’s go back through the mist of time for a instant to the long - draw a blank epoch of October 2005 . Apple justunveiled iTunes 6and , with it , the power to buy pick out television shows for $ 1.99 each from what was then known as the iTunes Music Store . certainly , the selection was fix to a handful of Disney - have attribute — Lost , Desperate Housewives , That ’s So Raven , The Suite Life of Zack and Cody , and the long - forgotten , not - excessively lamentedNight Stalker — but that did n’t deter the masses from wild celebration . The general flavor was that other telecasting meshwork and content providers would sign on with iTunes rather than impart Disney to snap up all that potential revenue — and that feeling only grow secure after Apple sold 1 million videos in less than 20 years . Indeed , a short less than two months after TV shows - on - iTunes made their all - Disney debut , NBC got into the turn . Soon other broadcast and cable networks follow suit of clothes , until idiot box offering at the iTunes Store swelled to more than 220 show from 40 - plus networks .
I institute this up , not because I ’m finger peculiarly nostalgic , but because it ’s been about two month since Apple ’s September 12 “ Showtime ” upshot introducedfeature - length picture to the iTunes Store . And , as of this writing anyhow , while the routine of movies offer through iTunes has grown thanks to weekly new tone ending , the number of studios participate in the service has not . It ’s still the same four studios that were there from the get - go — Walt Disney Pictures , Pixar , Touchstone , and Miramax ( which are all have by Apple ’s old chum , Disney , for those of you score at abode ) .
To paraphrase that old cliché from one of the western sandwich you ’ll undoubtedly find among the iTunes Store ’s Library selections , it ’s placid out there … too quiet . In the motion pictures , that line usually gets emit before all manner of mayhem is unleashed . Which means it ’s probably about time for Apple to add some more movie studios to the iTunes intermixture .
Certainly , preceding carrying out is no indication of future results , but my little saunter down memory lane on how tv set offerings number to iTunes might be instructive as to what to carry with flick . No less an authority than Steve Jobs himself made the comparison at the aforesaid September 12 event . Before even announcing the plus of movies , Jobs gave the same iTunes computer memory history example that I just did . And he concluded the pic announcement by promising that Apple was going to “ add more [ movies ] every week and every month . ” That ’s a not - so - subtle hypnotism from Apple ’s chief executive officer to expect more moviemakers to sign on with iTunes — and I select to wait that to happen sooner rather than later .
Now , obviously , getting more movie studios to take part in iTunes is n’t something Apple can do by rescript — the studio have some say in the matter themselves . But all conditions — the two month spread since movie purchase debut , the draw near vacation time of year , the fact that each passing mean solar day brings us a little bit close to the expiration of Apple ’s planned iTV machine — point to some announcement being made presently . If rival studio needed more incentive , then consider Disney CEO Bob Iger ’s revelation that his company has soldalmost half - a - million picture show through iTunes . The ways of Hollywood are occult to me , but I ca n’t imagine studio executive director enjoy the sight of Disney keeping all those sales to itself .
