Music threat to on-line film initiatives.(licensing barriers may hold back popular films)(Brief...

Complexity of movie-music licensing may prove to be major obstacle to launch of Hollywood studios' new broadband VoD service (see US majors launch Net movie service under New Products & Services). Launching with only 100 movie titles and adding more as time goes on, service may not be able to release certain movies that consumers desire--particularly recent films featuring top 40 music.

There are currently two types of contracts governing movie-music: ones that give studios rights to films and music in them, no matter h