Rentals

Apple shuts down $0.99 iTunes TV show rentals

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Aug 26, 2011 a 6:02 pm

Apple seems to have removed $0.99 TV show rentals from iTunes and Apple TV. In a statement provided to Wall Street Journal technology blog, All Things D, Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr explained:

“iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows. iTunes in the Cloud lets customers download and watch their past TV purchases from their iOS devices, Apple TV, Mac or PC allowing them to enjoy their programming whenever and however they choose.”

Fox seems to confirm the reasoning:

Bugs: Using Google DNS and suffering super slow iTunes rentals and downloads?

By Georgia, Monday, Dec 20, 2010 a 5:07 pm

TiPb's gotten lots of reports from iPhone, iPad and Apple TV users of super slow iTunes rentals and downloads -- we're talking hours and hours! -- and it looks like Google DNS (and OpenDNS) could be part of the problem. According to Joe Mailer:

UPDATED: Apple TV (2010) bug lets you watch iTunes rentals for 30 days?

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Oct 5, 2010 a 4:15 pm

Rent a movie from iTunes on Windows or Mac and stream it to your new Apple TV (2010) and it never starts Hollywood's 24h-48h countdown, which means you have 30 days to enjoy them as much as you want. Here's the steps as MacRumors outlines them:

We've successfully tested this procedure on latest iTunes (thanks to forum user TheBritishBloke), and it works (at least in the short term as the new Apple TV hasn't been out for 30 days):

Fox, ABC to offer $0.99 iTunes rentals, CBS, NBC to keep heads buried in sand?

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Sep 1, 2010 a 12:50 am

"People familiar with the situation" (yes, them again) have told the Wall Street Journal that both Fox and ABC are good to go on $0.99 iTunes TV show rentals, and will be announced later today at Apple's special music event. Since ABC is owned by Disney, whose largest shareholder is Steve Jobs, their getting on board isn't a huge surprise. Likewise, Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox, introduced Jobs at D8 and is all up in Apple rescuing print media (like the Wall Street Journal) and TV alike.

Updated: Apple event September 7, return of the $0.99 iTunes TV show rental rumors?

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Aug 24, 2010 a 3:59 pm

Chad says we buried the lede: Bloomberg also claims Apple's annual special music -- and this time TV -- event will be held September 7. That's not official, of course. We'll only know for sure when Apple sends out the invitations.

Remember those rumors of $0.99 iTunes TV show rentals? They're back. This time with word that FOX-owner Newcorp is in "advanced talks" over the service. CBS and Disney (which has Steve Jobs as their largest share holder) are also rumored to be involved.

iTunes Movies Come to Canada and the UK!

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Jun 4, 2008 a 4:55 pm

Long the [out-of-wedlock] stepchildren of the iTunes experience, Canada and the UK got some small measure of love a while back with the addition of TV shows, albeit primarily local and cable fare, like CBC and BBC respectively. But where were our movies? What about our (pricey) Apple Take 2 rentals?

Today Apple finally bestowed cinema on her Majesties loyal subjects, home and commonwealth alike:

iTunes Movie Rentals Announced

By Dieter Bohn, Tuesday, Jan 15, 2008 a 12:36 pm

They've sold 4 Billion songs, 125 million TV shows, and 7 million movies. However, that 7 million mark is lower than they'd prefer. So today, Jobs has announced iTunes Movies Rentals.

On board - every major movie studio! Steve presented them with a "and by the way." They will launch with 1000 films by the end of February. They will be on iTunes 30 days after their DVD release. You can watch on iPhone.