“Universal Pictures has launched a new service in Britain that will sell digital downloads of movies such as ‘King Kong’ along with a DVD copy, tapping into the online video market now dominated by Apple’s iTunes,” Tim Castle reports for Reuters. “From April 10, consumers will be able to download two digital copies of selected movies — one for a computer and one for a portable device — and receive a DVD in the mail… The new service announced on Thursday is download-to-own, meaning that the downloads will not expire.”

“The new service will use Microsoft’s digital rights management technology, which is designed to prevent consumers from duplicating the movies, burning them to disc or uploading them to the Internet,” Castle reports. “Universal will start the service with ‘King Kong’ as part of an initial collection of 35 movies, including ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Serenity.’ ‘King Kong’ will sell for 19.99 pounds, roughly equal to the retail price.”

Full article here.

Apple earlier this month began offering what many believe to be a test of a feature-length movie downloads with the full-length Disney television movie High School Musical for US$9.99.

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Related articles:
Apple jacks price of first full-length iTunes Store movie from $1.99 to $9.99 – March 15, 2006
Apple offers first full-length movie for sale via iTunes Store – March 14, 2006