Viacom to sell Paramount’s back-catalog of movies on iTunes
According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) Apple is set to announce a deal with Viacom to sell movies from Paramount Pictures’ back-catalog of movies. The deal will not include new-releases, at least at first, as Viacom waits to see the reaction from its brick-and-mortar retail partners. The deal is expected to be announced as early as today at Macworld.
Titles such as “Forrest Gump“, “The Truman Show” and the “Mission: Impossible” franchise could all be making their appearance today at $9.99.
Viacom had been closely watching the way retailers reacted to Disney’s deal with iTunes in order to judge the risks of a potential backlash or even boycott of Paramount titles should they come on board. After a brief tussle between Target and Disney (in which Disney prevailed), Viacom’s fears were put to rest somewhat, and hundred of (relatively) new titles could be added to the iTunes Movie Store this afternoon.
The Wall Street Journal lists “people familiar with the situation” as its source for this