Hollywood seeks an iTunes for movies

Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment is trying to develop and own the next iTunes — but for films.

Sony Pictures plans to digitize its top 500 films and make them available for the first time in various digital environments within the next year. The distribution for films like “Spider-Man 2” will go beyond just Movielink, the video-on-demand joint venture of Sony Pictures and several other major studios, which to date has hosted a limited library of Sony’s movies.

Sony’s plans — and similar moves by other studios — are likely to avoid empowering any one technology company — such as Apple in the music equation — and allow studios to pocket more of the profits, CNET News reported.

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