14 DAY TRIAL // With digital music downloads being such a mature and popular market, it is not surprising that they are the top story when it comes to the iTunes Store's success. Despite being under the radar most of the time, both TV shows and movies are an important part of the iTunes Store.
The Walt Disney Co. recently announced net profit for Q2 07 of $931 million, or 44 cents per share, compared to $733 million, or 37 cents per share, compared to the previous year. During the conference call, President and CEO, Bob Iger, said that Disney will "continue to view the broadband-enabled internet as an important entertainment medium, and our creative and technological investments in Disney, ESPN, ABC.com are designed with that premise in mind."
While not as big as digital music sales, digital movies and TV shows are definitely picking up, and Iger reported that Disney has so far sold 23.7 million TV shows and 2 million movies via Apple's iTunes Store. While that might be just a drop in the bucket, the Internet is becoming an increasingly important part of the distribution network, and will continue to grow in the years ahead.
So far, neither the Apple TV, nor the video content on the iTunes Store have made a huge impact, but change is definitely in the air, and it could very well turn out that Apple has both feet firmly planted in the future of movies and TV shows. However, for the time being, video content on the internet is still limited by the less than ideal quality and connection limitations. Last but not least, many have stated that selling movies and TV shows is simply not as good as a subscription service since the content will rarely be viewed more than once.