The movie studios have traditionally spread out the release dates for PPV, cable, DVDs and download in an effort to maximize the dollars they are able to extract from customers. Apple have announced that they have agreements in place to allow them to offer movie downloads via iTunes coincident with the DVD release.

I believe that this is the first step towards the compression of this timeline. The endgame being only one or two release dates for movies; theatrical and all others. As the entire movie industry moves to digital techniques from camera to screen there is little impediment to a ‘big bang’ release methodology. Mark Cuban has been advocating this for some time.

http://gizmodo.com/386026/apple-to-sell-movies-on-dvd-release-day-confirmed

UPDATE: Here is a piece from Variety with a bit more background.  I especially like the quote at the end from a Fox exec.; ‘What we do want is pay-per-view to replace rental.’…  Interesting…