iTunes Rentals Misses Mark

March 4, 2008   0 Comments
During the MacWorld announcement of iTunes Movie Rentals, Apple had hoped to have over 1,000 films by the end of February. That date has come and gone and according to AppleInsider, Apple didn't hit half the number of rentals as it had hoped. Currently the iTunes Movie Rental selection only contains 384 movies. Of these 91 were in HD, and 40 weren't in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.

384 Movies might sound like a great start for an online rental service, but compare it with Amazon's Unboxed service which has over 10,000 movies and Netflix which has over 5,000 titles, it becomes apparent there is a lot of catching up to do. Apple should iron out the deals with the rest of the studios that currently offer movie downloads to allow movie rentals as well.

Labels: iTunes Rentals

BBC Player for AppleTV?

January 21, 2008   0 Comments
With iTunes Movie rentals soon to be a reality on your AppleTv, it would make sense for BBC to add TV Show and Program rentals through the same interface. BBC has been utilizing their iPlayer to permit viewers to download and watch BBC programming for a limited time. BBC programming is free but also includes a limited playback window similar to AppleTV's movie rentals.

Ashley Highfield from the BBC said that "The announcement from Macworld about the effective relaunch of the AppleTV... is encouraging." This statement alone leads us to believe that the BBC has eyed AppleTV as a potential solution to their Macintosh player problem. Currently their player is flash based, and not a stand alone applicaiton like the Windows component.

Labels: AppleTV, BBC, iTunes Rentals

iTunes Movie Rentals (Officially)

January 16, 2008   0 Comments
Once again a rumor through the grapevine becomes reality. At today's Macworld Keynote, Steve introduced us to iTunes Movie Rentals, with all major movie studios already signed on. This includes 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios, Sony Pictures, MGM, Lionsgate, and New Line Cinema. iTunes users will now be able to rent movies as low as $2.99 and view them on their computers, iPods, iPhones and AppleTVs.

The iTunes Movie Rental launch will have over 1,000 titles immediately available for rent. Over 100 of these titles will be available in 720p high definition and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound for $1.00 more. Existing titles will utilize the $2.99 standard definition and $3.99 high definition price points, and new releases will be available at $4.99.

Once rented, the movie is downloaded to your AppleTV or iTunes Library, over your high-speed internet connection, and can be viewed almost immediately. Customers have up to 30 days to view the movie, or 24 hours to watch it multiple times. After the 24 hr period or 30 days, the movie is removed from the library and deleted to save hard drive space.

Labels: iTunes, iTunes Rentals