When I hear Disney news like this, I wonder how much is Steve Jobs’ direct influence and how much is Disney as a whole simply becoming a progressive entertainment juggernaut. The company announced the other day that as part of their internet initiative, they will begin streaming complete movies online with a single bit of advertising at the very beginning of the feed. Now, they aren’t releasing their entire library online for anyone to watch at any time - each flick will be available for one week following it’s airing on ABC. This is still a huge step forward, though, and hopefully other studios will follow in Disney’s footsteps in the near future.

“Finding Nemo” is available at www.Disney.com/WWoD (http://www.Disney.com/WWoD) through Friday, after the film’s airing Saturday on Disney-owned ABC. “Monsters, Inc.,” “Haunted Mansion,” “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen,” “Princess Diaries 2,” “Freaky Friday” and “Peter Pan” also will be available on the site this summer.

A Disney spokesman said the decision to stream movies for free marks an “evolution” in the company’s online strategy. Fox, Universal, Lionsgate and MGM have all previously placed titles on Hulu, the NBC Universal/News Corp.-owned site, while Disney has gone the pay route and kept its films, for the most part, on iTunes.

Disney Channel does, though, stream episodes of its series online for free.

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