Apple Team up With Lionsgate. Who’s Next?

The movies that iTunes customers will be able to purchase will be blockbusters such as  "Terminator 2," "LA Story," "Basic Instinct," "The Blair Witch Project" and "Dirty Dancing" , and another 150 titles coming to iTunes this month.

Lionsgate's renowned collection of movie titles available on iTunes in the coming weeks include legendary action adventure films and thrillers such as "Total Recall" and "Rambo," indie classics such as "Monster's Ball" as well as perennial favorites such as "Chaplin" and "The Boys From Brazil."

"We're delighted to offer these incredibly popular Lionsgate films on iTunes, and look forward to adding even more films in the future," said Steve Beeks, president of Lionsgate. "iTunes lets users download these wonderful films to watch on their computer, TV or iPod, so movie fans can take their favorite Lionsgate films with them anywhere."

Due to this partnership, iTunes has reached a number of 400 movies on sale.

"The iTunes Store is by far the most popular online movie store in the world," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We're thrilled to be adding this phenomenal collection of Lionsgate titles from Hollywood's leading independent studio, including such blockbusters as 'Terminator 2.'"

The partnership with Lionsgate is important to Apple from other perspectives as well. Last year, the press conference in which analysts predicted that Steve Jobs would announce iTunes would start selling movies was preceded by the release of Amazon Unbox. The service through which Apple decided to expand its area of interest and to enter the digital download market was greatly supported by all American production companies, with the sole exception of Disney.

Disney was also the only producer present on iTunes from the very first moment of its launch. Apple now has a chance of adding a new partner and probably not the last.

This is very important at the moment, as the battle for digital video entertainment has become increasingly heated. Wal-Mart announced last week an online video-download service, which offers some 3,000 movies from most major studios.

The store's "beta" version includes programming from Fox Broadcasting, MTV, Nickelodeon and other networks, but not from ABC, CBS or NBC. The nation's largest retailer hopes to beat other download services by offering films for as little as $7.50 and TV episodes for $1.96.New releases are available for video download on the day of the DVD release and range from $12.88 to $19.88, catalog titles start at about $7.50 and TV shows are $1.96 per episode. Besides the download service, Wal-Mart said it will offer DVD-digital movie bundles for select titles throughout the year.

Soon after Wal-Mart, TiVo Inc. and Amazon.com announced "Amazon Unbox on TiVo," a soon-to-be-launched service feature that will provide TiVo subscribers with the ability to rent and purchase movies and television shows from leading studios and networks including CBS, Fox Entertainment Group, Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Customers who own a broadband connected TiVo Series2 or Series3 box can purchase television episodes for $1.99, purchase most movies for between $9.99 and $14.99, or rent movies starting at $1.99. The prices are apparently set to match Apple TV. All purchased videos are automatically stored in each customer's "Your Media Library" at Amazon.com for future access and download. According to TiVo, video downloaded from Unbox is of higher quality than programming recorded at the "Best Quality" setting on a TiVo Series2 DVR. Amazon Unbox on TiVo is currently in beta testing among a select group of TiVo subscribers and will be available soon to more than 1.5 million broadband-ready TiVo boxes.

In conditions such as these, it is clear that the winner will not only be the online store that is capable of providing the best experience (where iTunes is amongst the best), but the most varied offer. So who’s next after Lionsgate?