Disney sells nearly a half million films through iTunes
Walt Disney Co. said Thursday it has sold nearly a half million films through Apple Computer's iTunes store since announcing the distribution deal a little less than two months ago.
The sales figure, which amounts to approximately $4 million in revenue, was announced during the entertainment conglomerate's fiscal fourth quarter conference call with analysts and members of the media.
Disney said it expects movie downloads to generate $50 million in added revenue during the first year of the program.
It started by making 75 movies available on iTunes service in Sept. and recently announced plans to add the No. 1 animated film of the year, Cars, and the No. 1 film of the year, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
With half a million sales in just under eight weeks, customers are purchasing approximately 62,500 movies from Apple's iTunes store each week, or just shy of 9,000 each day.
"This underlines the strength and uniqueness of our film library, and indicates there is a consumer appetite for movie downloads that complements demand for DVDs," said president and chief executive Robert Iger.
Thus far, Disney is the only major motion picture studio who has agreed to sell its films through the ubiquitous iTunes service. However, News Corp's. Fox Entertainment Group and independent Lions Gates are reported to be in ongoing negotiations with Apple about making their catalog of films available to iTunes customers.
In beating Wall Street's expectations, Disney said earnings per share for the fourth quarter increased 89 percent to $0.36, compared to $0.19 in the year-ago quarter. Profits doubled from $379 million to $782 million.
"Disney had a spectacular year, posting record revenues, record net income, and record cash flow," Iger said. "It is a result of the incredible creativity at our company."
Iger added that the company is close to wrapping up a digital distribution deal with Comcast that would likely result in the delivery of new shows to both the provider's cable and online customers.
The sales figure, which amounts to approximately $4 million in revenue, was announced during the entertainment conglomerate's fiscal fourth quarter conference call with analysts and members of the media.
Disney said it expects movie downloads to generate $50 million in added revenue during the first year of the program.
It started by making 75 movies available on iTunes service in Sept. and recently announced plans to add the No. 1 animated film of the year, Cars, and the No. 1 film of the year, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
With half a million sales in just under eight weeks, customers are purchasing approximately 62,500 movies from Apple's iTunes store each week, or just shy of 9,000 each day.
"This underlines the strength and uniqueness of our film library, and indicates there is a consumer appetite for movie downloads that complements demand for DVDs," said president and chief executive Robert Iger.
Thus far, Disney is the only major motion picture studio who has agreed to sell its films through the ubiquitous iTunes service. However, News Corp's. Fox Entertainment Group and independent Lions Gates are reported to be in ongoing negotiations with Apple about making their catalog of films available to iTunes customers.
In beating Wall Street's expectations, Disney said earnings per share for the fourth quarter increased 89 percent to $0.36, compared to $0.19 in the year-ago quarter. Profits doubled from $379 million to $782 million.
"Disney had a spectacular year, posting record revenues, record net income, and record cash flow," Iger said. "It is a result of the incredible creativity at our company."
Iger added that the company is close to wrapping up a digital distribution deal with Comcast that would likely result in the delivery of new shows to both the provider's cable and online customers.
Comments
Wonder why HBO is waiting so long, leaving money on the table?
Looks like iTV will be a big hit.
Yes, yes, I know it's just beginning. I still want to know what the real direction for iTV will be.
MacWorld SF Jan2007. It's gonna be mind-blowing. I'm setting my expectations very low, just so I guarantee I'll be surprised 8) ... But as mentioned previously in another thread, Macs and iPods are maxxed out for now, so processor bumps will not really be in the Keynote, just a short summary/ review perhaps. Something new is in the wind for 2007. Time for Apple to take the next step.
I wonder what the recommended iTV config would be... as for me, I've had to delete a lot of free iTunes video content recently. Too much frickin' space lost to it. I still loves me them DVDs tho'.
Holy mouse ears! Wasn't the one month mark something like 100k? Meaning that the growth trend is increasing? If so, rather gives lie to the analysis that "Oh, that's just early adopters and Apple fanatics..." that we saw in the first few weeks of this.
Totally dude. I thought I read a "Apple iTunes Movies is teh doomed" alongside the news that XBOX360-Live/Connect will allow movie rentals from Paramount and WarnerBros.
Macworld SF2007 Jan - I would definitely like to see FOX (StarWars and stuff), Paramount, WarnerBros (Matrix and Stuff), Touchstone, HBO, etc, etc... A lot of movies available!! It may eat into the Wallmart physical sales a bit but it may add to overall movie sales from the studios. I don't think the studios are that scared of Wallmart, IMHO. But that was debated heavily in another thread and I'm not going there. 8)
If Apple starts renting movies when iTv is released, they oughta be renting 500,000 movies per day.. Heck, iTunes sells 2 million songs per day, so they could easily achieve that number with rentals.
Reading the Wal-Mart threads a few weeks ago, it was stated that DVD sales are a 17 billion dollar a year business in the US, and 60% of that is from Wal-mart alone.
If you figure the average selling price of DVD's is appx $15, that means that 3.1 million DVD's are sold per day in the U.S. If Apple is selling 9000 movies per day, that means they already have 2.9% of the pie with Disney movies alone. I think that is actually quite good!
Okay, these numbers got me curious, so I did a little math..
Reading the Wal-Mart threads a few weeks ago, it was stated that DVD sales are a 17 billion dollar a year business in the US, and 60% of that is from Wal-mart alone.
If you figure the average selling price of DVD's is appx $15, that means that 3.1 million DVD's are sold per day in the U.S. If Apple is selling 9000 movies per day, that means they already have 2.9% of the pie with Disney movies alone. I think that is actually quite good!
This must be what has Walmart worried. How much of this is in addition to DVD sales rather than instead of? Any idea?
How many people like to watch movies?
How many people in the US rent DVDs?
How many people in the US buy DVDs?
OK, now how many people own a computer (any computer)?
How many people have installed and use iTunes?
How many people use iTunes to buy music or movies?
You'll find the numbers get quite small the more you ask questions.
Its more about the installed iPod base.
The 80 GB iPod can store:
50 movies
100 hour long television dramas
200 sitcoms
2000 music videos
The 40 GB iPod can store:
20 movies
40 hour long television dramas
80 sitcoms
800 music videos
All of this media can be carried on a 4" x 2.4" device weighing 5.5 ounces and can be plugged into any television.
Versus carrying around a stack of easily scratched DVD's.
More questions ...
How many people like to watch movies?
How many people in the US rent DVDs?
How many people in the US buy DVDs?
OK, now how many people own a computer (any computer)?
How many people have installed and use iTunes?
How many people use iTunes to buy music or movies?
You'll find the numbers get quite small the more you ask questions.
I know that 80% of American households have at least one computer and 50% of those households use a broadband internet connection.. Considering that 2 million songs are sold per day on iTunes the numbers may not be as small as you think. Next to amazon.com, iTunes is the most visited eCommerce site in the world. iTunes awarness is definitely very high. I think if Apple were able to get all the major studios on board and they incorporate a rental method, it will be massive.
More questions ...
How many people like to watch movies?
How many people in the US rent DVDs?
How many people in the US buy DVDs?
OK, now how many people own a computer (any computer)?
How many people have installed and use iTunes?
How many people use iTunes to buy music or movies?
You'll find the numbers get quite small the more you ask questions.
Well, image that you could download content directly through iTV and transfer it to an iPod (wirelessly would be nice) and then in turn stream it back to the iTV from your iPod. No computer. That would make the pie a bit bigger wouldn't you say.
I own two iPods and have only bought 1 music download from iTunes and don't intend to buy any movies. I still buy CDs for the high fidelity. I would buy television series from HBO and Showtime that I don't have in my cable plan through iTunes though. So, in that sense the iTV might be useful to me.
How many people watch television?
Still sucks that downloaded movies have no special features.
I child has to walk before he can run.
With numbers like this, deals with other studios are just a matter of time.
Wonder why HBO is waiting so long, leaving money on the table?
Looks like iTV will be a big hit.
It's very odd about HBO. They were one of the first to announce that they would like to be on iTunes. Then nothing.
Holy mouse ears! Wasn't the one month mark something like 100k? Meaning that the growth trend is increasing? If so, rather gives lie to the analysis that "Oh, that's just early adopters and Apple fanatics..." that we saw in the first few weeks of this.
I was thinking about that myself. Interesting numbers.
I wonder how many Amazon has sold.
Or the other sites.
Have any released fiqures?
Does anyone know?
My HD is just the standard 150GB that came w/ my computer. I guess new Mac Pros are coming with, what, 500GB standard HDs?
250
I wonder what the recommended iTV config would be... as for me, I've had to delete a lot of free iTunes video content recently. Too much frickin' space lost to it. I still loves me them DVDs tho'.
How many movies would you buy? Or rip?