Apple is poised to announce it will start selling films from four major Hollywood studios for download in the UK as part of its iTunes internet service at prices on a par with DVDs.

The company intends to unveil agreements with Disney, the studio behind the Pirates of the Caribbean series and Paramount, the company behind the Indiana Jones picture.

Exact pricing details were not available last night, but studio sources said that they “would not want to undercut DVD prices”. That would imply prices ranging anywhere from £6 to £25.

Twentieth Century Fox, the studio owned by News Corporation, the parent company of The Times, and Warner Brothers, the Time Warner company that is behind the Harry Potter series and the Matrix trilogy are the other two majors to sign up.

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Amazon and Play.com already sell DVDs on line. Sweeney Todd, the dramatisation of the familiar story starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter, and distributed by Warner Brothers and Paramount’s DreamWorks was on sale last night from Amazon at £12.98 and from Play.com at £12.99 — an indication of the potential pricing via Apple’s film-enabled iTunes service.

It is the first time that Hollywood films have been available to Britons, although similar agreements have been struck for the United States already. Canada is also expected to be covered by the new agreement.

Films will be available both for outright purchase and for rent, along the lines of video on demand services already available on Virgin Media and Sky, the satellite broadcaster, 39.1 per cent owned by News Corporation.

The exact date on which popular films will be made available is yet to be finalised, and the release schedule is up to the studios. However, the expectation is that studios will make films available for iTunes at prices that are compatible with movie rental for video on demand and with DVD for sales — and popular titles such as the Warner’s Harry Potter series will be available within the next few months.

Smaller studios such as Lions Gate, the horror specialist, and MGM, the independent studio behind the James Bond series, are also understood to be party to the impending deal, leaving only Sony Pictures, the producer of The Da Vinci Code, and Universal Studios, home to King Kong, outside the anticipated agreement.

The Hollywood studios remain mindful of the need to protect the still large revenue stream from the area, although DVD sales declined by between 2 and 3 per cent last year. In the UK the DVD market was flat in 2007 by value, amid pricing pressure from supermarkets who are keen to sell films at a discount to woo consumers.

Studio executives believe that it is possible to increase revenues through downloading because there is evidence from the United States that extra promotion and the availability of films on multiple platforms boosts interest. They are also confident that Apple is willing to accept varying price points for films, even though the technology giant insists that music should be priced at 79p per song regardless of how much in demand it is.

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