Apple to load iTunes with Fox blockbusters

Apple Inc. is all set to forge a landmark partnership with News Corporation, under which the Cupertino, California- based Apple will make Twentieth Century Fox movies available for rent digitally through its iTunes Store, according to a report published by the online edition of the Financial Times.

The agreement between Apple and News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox will allow consumers to rent latest releases for online viewing at Apple's digital iTunes Store. The two companies are expected to announce the deal on January 14 at the Macworld conference, the report said.

Some media reports surfaced today stating that the movie lovers will be able to rent Fox's latest DVD releases by downloading a copy from the online iTunes store for a limited duration.

Fox is the second Hollywood studio after Walt Disney to distribute movies on iTunes store. Currently, Walt Disney is the only Hollywood Studio distributing new films over iTunes. However, the Disney films for now are only for purchase and not for rental.

In its future DVD releases, Fox will use Apple's digital rights management technology, which will enable consumers to make legal copies of the disc that can be played on a computer or video iPod.

Apple's iTunes store was introduced in 2003 for commercial music downloads and it became instantly popular with online customers. Apple had started with a library of only 200,000 songs and today it has over 6 million songs in its pocket.

The iPod/Mac maker's iTunes Music store boasts of more than 70 percent of digital music sales in the United States. To date, Apple has sold over 3 billion songs via its online music store, of which nearly 45 percent were purchased as albums.

Apple’s music store features the world's largest catalog with more than six million songs, 350 television shows and over 400 movies. The iTunes Store has sold 100 million TV shows and over 2 million movies, making it the world's most popular online music, TV and movie store.

Movies purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store can be viewed on a computer, fifth generation iPod and, soon on Apple TV. Most of them are priced at US$9.99 each. Movies downloaded from the iTunes Store are downloaded in near-DVD quality at a resolution of 640x480.

Apple shares, on Wednesday, reached the $200 mark for the first time, before pulling back and closing the session at $198.95, up 15 cents or 0.08%. Shares of News Corporation jumped $0.36 or 1.68% to $21.82 in regular session.