News 

In a note to investors, Munster did not name the studios, saying only that he had met with executives from four of the six major studios and that two had said they expect to sign up within six months.

Munster said that he believes that three concerns are behind the studios' reluctance to sign up immediately:

ADVERTISEMENT

the potential for retaliation from DVD retailers; unspecified DRM issues; and Apple's insistence on a rigid price structure.

He noted that should DVD sales fall because of online competition, retailers may switch shelf space to other products.

'Some of the studios refer to this as "retaliation" and they are concerned that this could significantly disrupt current business models in the DVD market,' he said.

Turning to DRM, Munster said that the studios see Disney's iTunes offerings as a test-bed for the security of Apple's technology.

'For most studios, they are happy to see Disney serve as a "guinea pig", and we expect that if Disney's content continues to appear to be relatively safe from casual pirates, other studios will become more comfortable with offering content on iTunes,' he said.