Lions Gate Pushed Aside By Big Studios in iTunes Movies Launch?

So, whatever happened to Lions Gate (LGF)? The company whose executives "leaked" weeks ago that it had a distribution deal to be part of iTunes' movie sales was not on the meager list of suppliers announced this week by Apple (AAPL). What happened?

Lions Gate and other independents should be racing to Cupertino to get slotted. After all, Netflix (NFLX) will tell you most of their business is in "long tail" titles, and the makers of those films should be eager for, and fast to act, to take advantage of additional distribution. Frankly, I'm a little surprised the indies aren't already in Amazon's (AMZN) Unbox service.

Do you think the majors muscled them out of the kickoff announcements? Demanding preferential treatment, promotion, and shelf space?

Starting small was Steve Jobs' strategy with iTunes Music. He began with a few music labels, including independents. Regular news releases touted how many tracks were being sold helped fuel chatter. As the business built the majors came along.

Can the big studios still possibly think their way is the only way. Movielink, the movie download service they've backed, and LGF-co-owned Cinema Now have not done well, says Rob Pegoraro in the Washington Post: "Might as well have tumbleweeds blowing through their aisles. They offer laughably small selections at prices offering little or no savings over the DVD and under insultingly limited conditions," he wrote.

Apple will pursue the same "wait'em out strategy" with the big studios.

But WHERE are the little guys today?

Disclosure: I own shares in Netflix and Apple.