AppleInsider broke the news that iTunes 4.8 (not yet in Software Update, you can get it from Apple directly) supports Quicktime content. Specifically, you can play videos directly in iTunes, either in the main window, a separate window (Engadget as a good screenshot), or...full screen.
As you can see from the screenshot, movie content is stored directly within iTunes, much like a regular audio file. The fields don't make as much sense, but that's easy enough to fix in later versions.
The AppleInsider forum thread is filled with various bits of dis-information, but there were some good tidbits.
One of the lines of discussion was about the different apps and how they fit together. iPhoto 5 supports storing/organizing videos from your camera, and iMovie is for editing movies; why in iTunes as well? Well, one view is that iTunes is for paid content (movie/TV downloads!) and organizing (think video playlists/search/etc.) not importing/editing of your created content.
Oh right, and of course, iTunes is the only app that plays with Windows, so that's where movie download/sales stuff has to live.
There might even be a smoking gun. The excellent ArsTechnica forum had this:
I just looked through the strings in the iTunes executable file.
The first one I found was "Has Video," mixed in with attributes like "Has Variable Bit Rate" and "Genre."
The second is a bit more interesting. After "Purchased Music": "Purchased Videos"!
Update: Christopher Allen points to "AirVideo" -- video delivered via an upgrade to the AirPort Express. Scoble isn't sure it's an Apple employee where the comments originated on Slashdot. I've always thought that there's more than meets the eye in the AirPort Express (like VoIP).
And that should be enough for the rumour mill tonight -- now lovingly collected under the iTunes Movies rumour section.