Fox, Warner Music Ink Internet Deals

(FROM VARIETY) — In separate deals, 20th Century Fox and the Warner Music Group have taken big steps in offering their content over the internet. On Thursday, the Financial Times reported that Fox and Apple agreed to form a new on-demand service that will let consumers rent the studio's video releases via iTunes. The Hollywood major is also expected to encode its DVDs to make them easily ripped and played on iPods. While some movies are already available for sale on iTunes, this would be the first time a studio would offer its product for rental, which Variety reports would likely cost $2 to $5 for a 24-hour period. Meanwhile, Warner Music, the lone holdout among major music labels that have provided MP3s without copy-protection software, made its catalog available for download via Amazon.com on Thursday, thus allowing consumers to play its songs on any device. (Variety)