The Video industry is planning to break Apples strangle hold on downloaded media. Sony and a group of Media heavy-weights are planning to prevent Apple getting the hold on the video download sector by developing an 'open' standard that will allow videos downloaded from any of the partners services work on a huge range of devices.
This move is in response to the fear of Apple replicating it's Music service success, by essentially dominating the video market.
The group have created called their partner ship "Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem" which includes: Sony Pictures, Fox, Lionsgate, NBC Universal, Paramount & Warner Bros, Microsoft and VeriSign are also onboard with the group as are hardware manufacturers: HP, Toshiba & Cisco.