Downloads are not a viable source for Quality HD movies. With most broadband providers capping downloads or about to cap downloads, this is a pipe dream.
With the savings from producing and distributing disks the studio could easily pay for the download bandwidth.
No pipe dream (clever phrasing, however!). Broadband providers will find a way to deliver you movies for less than the cost of a physical CD, even if they have to charge for it. Mostly likely, they’ll find a way to charge iTunes and other music sources for delivering a movie to the end user.