Recently at an event in San Francisco, Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive unveiled their online movie download service that will be available through the iTunes store. In addition, they revealed iTV, a new device that will allow you to download movies to watch on your own TV. To kick off this new service, iTunes is now offering films from Disney, Pixar, and Miramax films, but talk has already begun about other studios jumping on board. Althought this iTV device will not be available until 2007, the question has been raised of how will this affect DVD rentals. Over the past year, many new DVD clubs have popped up, opening the doors for many indie filmmakers to distribute their films online. Will these new companies be able to compete with Apple?

It's too early to tell, but somehow I suspect that online distribution will follow the same lines as theatrical. The companies with lots of money to market their films will dominate the sector, while the smaller films are left to the niche-companies. I hope, if anything, this new technology does allow for more people to discover indie films that they might not otherwise... but in the comfort of their homes. For now, I guess all we can do is stay tuned...

Long live indie film,

Michelle