“Apple’s sputtering efforts to be a major purveyor of video downloads may get a boost in 2008 from an agreement with 20th Century Fox for digital movie rentals,” John Markoff reports for The New York Times.

MacDailyNews Take: If by “sputtering,” Markoff means “market-dominating,” he’s correct.

“Apple has been trying to interest a number of Hollywood studios in an iTunes rental service, and several people familiar with the negotiations said that more than one studio would appear onstage at the company’s MacWorld exhibition here beginning Jan. 14 to endorse a new Apple movie rental service,” Markoff reports.

MacDailyNews Take: 20th Century Fox and Disney or those two plus more?

Markoff continues, “Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., now sells movie downloads from several studios through its iTunes service, including Walt Disney, where Mr. Jobs is a board member and its largest individual shareholder.”

Markoff reports, “With more than 30 million iPods sold, many of which can display videos, Apple has in its customers an attractive audience for the Hollywood studios. “

MacDailyNews Take: You guys dropped the “1″ there, John. It’s over 130 million iPods sold to date. 30 million in the last quarter maybe. Apple began offering iPods with video playback capability on October 12, 2005.

Markoff continues, “The ability of consumers to watch movies on multiple devices — video players, laptops, desktop computers and televisions — would be a significant advance for Apple, by expanding the market for movie rentals.”

Full article here.