CNET drops a big bottle of killjoy juice on recent rumors that Apple might just be ready to rollout their fabled iTunes Replay service — the ability to re-download and stream content to iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV and iTunes on Windows and Mac from the iCloud — or a Netflix-like subscription service.

While Apple has music and now TV available for re-download, at least in the US, apparently they’ve only got agreements with 4 of the 6 big studios needed to add movies to the mix.

One reason is the HBO window. During specific periods of time–often referred to in the film industry as windows–HBO owns the exclusive electronic distribution rights of films from three of the six top films studios: 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros. Any retailer that wishes to sell physical DVDs from these studios during HBO’s window is totally unrestricted. But online retailers are legally prevented from delivering movie downloads from the three HBO-restricted studios during HBO’s window and they also can’t stream titles from those studios. This means that right now iTunes can’t stream a movie to a customer during the HBO window that the customer may have purchased outside of the window.

Broadcast windows are also the reason movies and TV Shows sometimes disappear and reappear from iTunes, Netflix, etc. But the bottom line seems to be, at least for now, that iTunes movie re-downloading, streaming, and subscription services are still a long way off.

[CNET]

iTunes Replay is the rumored name of the rumored Apple subscription video streaming service rumored to compete with the likes of Netflix. Apple Insider reported on the rumors a while back, and now App Advice hears it might be coming soon.

There’s talk you’ll be able to stream content purchased as far back as January of 2009. We’re not sure what will happen to content purchased before that. There’s also talks of certain content only being available for re-downloaded five times. This lines up with Apple traditionally allowing 5 computers to be authorized to play purchased content under one iTunes account. If true, iTunes Replay would basically just extend what Apple is currently offering for re-downloading content via iCloud.

It should also be interesting to see if iTunes Match content will be integrated into iTunes Replay. If we can simply stream a lot of our content, it will free up precious storage space on our devices.

App Advice

Techcrunch thinks the move of iTunes to the clouds is inevitable. Back in February there were rumors of something called iTunes Replay, that would allow users to store their media purchases — which can easily grow to 10s if not 100s of GBs fairly quickly — on Apple’s servers and then stream them down to iTunes, Apple TV, or their iPhone or iPod touch on-demand.

Nothing came of it at the time. Since then, however, Apple has begun building a world-class data center in North Carolina, and baked a new HTTP streaming media feature into both the iPhone/iPod and the Mac.

With cost of hard drive storage still falling, and 2TB soon being realistic capacities for standard home media centers, do we — or Apple — really need to think about the “cloud” so much?

We do if we use iPhones, iPod touches, laptops… or upcoming iTablet and like-devices dependent on smaller, still more-expensive solid state storage. Sure local copies for backup are nigh impossible for old curmudgeons like myself to even consider giving up, but syncing, deleting, and otherwise managing content can be a pain in our old curmudgeonly nethers as well.

There’s one key area, however, it doesn’t address — bandwidth caps. Sure, they’re not an issue for most people in the US, but they are in countries where internet service is both more expensive, slower, and far more tightly capped. (Like where I am, in the distant realm of Canada.)

And even in the US, if cable and DSL companies start losing TV subscribers to iTunes, those prices and lack of caps might just change as well.

Of course, letting us sync and manage our content over WiFi could and should be an alternative. iTunes and Apple TV can already sync over WiFi, and the iPhone can download movies from the iTunes Store over WiFi. Why can’t the iPhone browse our PC’s iTunes library and transfer media over via WiFi?

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. That’s the future. Maybe. This is now. Do you want your iTunes in the cloud?

Even if we get a 32GB iPhone this year, that will still limit the amount of big, blobby iTunes movie content we can carry around with us. Sure, maybe 20 movies at 1GB each is doable, but as video and sound quality increase towards the HD, and collections grow and grow, the ability to stream content to mobile devices becomes key.

So it’s not too surprising Apple Insider reports iTunes Replay is looking to provide just such a streaming service:

iTunes Replay would arrive on the heels of last month’s report that Apple has shifted its online content delivery strategy to include a provider in Limelight Networks, joining longtime Apple partner Akamai Technologies. Having two different providers could help greatly optimize the delivery of streaming content to the millions of customers who use iTunes.

Personally, while I’d enjoy the ability to stream iTunes to my iPhone, I’d never buy anything that I couldn’t also store locally as a backup. Too many online media services have gone offline over the years, effectively stealing back the content their users had legally paid for. However, it’s definitely an option I’d like on-the-go. What I’d like even more? The ability to use a Back to My Mac-like connection to stream my own content to my iPhone, you know… like SlingMedia Player.

Anyone psyched for this?