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Chief executive Robert Iger told a Goldman Sachs analysts' conference that he now expects the company to rake in around $50 million in extra revenue through the sale of iTunes movies, a figure that will doubtlessly encourage other major studios to get on board as quickly as possible.

Iger said that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had played a key role in developing Disney's digital media strategy.

'He has become very quickly not only a great sounding board but a great adviser,' Iger said.

Jobs is Disney's single largest shareholder following the company's

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purchase of Pixar Animation, which he co-founded.

Iger said that despite Jobs' presence on the Disney board, the company would not preclude deals with other content distributors.

'First of all we do take a platform agnostic approach. The deal with Apple is not exclusive, under any circumstance contractually or otherwise,' Iger said. 'And certainly Steve Jobs understands that as a major shareholder of Disney. We are choosy in terms of the partners that we pick because we have to have a pretty good digital rights management solution.'

Not to mention some cash: 'We have to believe that the platform is going to work. And that means it is user-friendly, it is well marketed, it is well-financed, it is well-organised. And we also believe that it has to provide us with enough compelling other reasons to put it on, meaning it is going to generate not just usage but some form of incremental revenue.'

Apple is currently selling around 75 films from Disney's four business units - Walt Disney, Pixar, Touchstone and Miramax - and Iger said that more titles would be available just as soon as the digital broadcast rights have been secured.