The Walt Disney Company will make its popular Toontown MMORPG ad-supported later this year, and will offer movie downloads in conjunction with Microsoft.

The latest announcement of Disney teaming with Microsoft to offer movie rentals on demand isn't too surprising. Disney has been standing cheerfully with Apple's Steve Jobs both before and after buying his Pixar movie studios, and Disney content abounds on iTunes, so they aren't strangers to the downloadable concept.

Disney has taken a more confident step into the Internet economy, as they enable digital delivery of movies and TV, while giving up the steady revenue of Toontown for the promise of advertising riches.