“Apple Inc. is preparing to put movies in the cloud, entering a market in which it may be both competitor and ally to a similar offering backed by most Hollywood studios,” Ben Fritz reports for The Los Angeles Times.

“Representatives of the iPhone and iPad maker have been meeting with studios to finalize deals that would allow consumers to buy movies through iTunes and access them on any Apple device, according to knowledgeable people who requested anonymity because the discussions are private,” Fritz reports. “The service is expected to launch in late 2011 or early 2012.”

Fritz reports, “Though studios have spent years building Ultraviolet, people familiar with the thinking of several studio executives say they’d be happy to see Apple join as well, since it accounts for 66% of online movie sales and rentals… Under the plan Apple is proposing, users could stream movies they buy via iTunes on any device the company makes, such as the Apple TV, iPhones and iPads, as well as on PCs.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Big deals and many extended negotiations are required in order for us to be able to play what we paid for wherever we want to play it. That, dear friends, is as ridiculous and stupid as when the music labels insisted on it. Smart content peddlers GTF out of the way after the sale. Then you have Hollywood.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Gideon R." for the heads up.]