ITunes, the leader in music retail in the United States, is to offer movies as soon as they are launched on DVD, Apple announced. Apparently great news, a closer look proves that it is not, in fact. Apple has managed to strike deals with most major film studios to release films day-and-date with home video releases, but they actually cost the same as a DVD. The deals include Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate and New Line, Apple said.

The deal apparently does not include new titles from MGM. The announcement comes just a day after Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner’s chief executive, said that Warner Brothers studio will experiment with releasing movies for video-on-demand systems on the same day they are released as DVDs.

“We’re thrilled to bring iTunes Store customers new films for purchase day-and-date with the DVD release,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, in a statement. “We think movie fans will love being able to buy their favorites from major and independent studios,” Cue said.

In early April, NPD reported that Apple's iTunes music store has managed to overcome retail giant Wal-Mart to grab the first place in the retail sales of music. The previous month, iTunes ranked second behind Wal-Mart. The iTunes Store became the largest music retailer in the US based on the amount of music sold during January and February 2008. Apple’s iTunes surpassed Wal-Mart, which last month had the first place. It remains to be seen how iTunes did in April, but I would expect no surprises.