iTunes Movie Rentals opens today, but US only

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 16 January 2008 01:20

Your IT - Entertainment

Perhaps the least surprising announcement at Macworld Expo was the news of movie rentals from the iTunes Store.

The service was widely predicted following leaks about a deal between Apple and Twentieth Century Fox. The good news is that all the major studios are onboard, including Twentieth Century Fox, Disney, Lionsgate, MGM, New Line Cinema, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros.

iTunes Movie Rentals will cost $US3.99 for new releases or $US2.99 for titles from the back catalogue. Some movies will be also available in high definition (720p) with Dolby 5.1 audio for an extra $US1.

Apple expects to have more than 1000 movies available for rental by the end of February. At the time of writing, none were visible on the iTunes Store.

After downloading, renters have up to 30 days to begin watching the movie. The movie expires 24 hours after play begins, but they can be viewed multiple times during that period and will work on Macs, PCs, iPhones, Apple TVs, and current iPod classic, nano and touch models.

The bad news for most of us is that the rental service is only available in the US, with no indication that Apple has any plans to extend it to other countries. Past experience of iTunes' international expansion suggests it will be a drawn-out process.

The service requires iTunes 7.6 (requires QuickTime 7.4) for Mac or Windows, which was released today, or a forthcoming update to the Apple TV software that will support renting movies directly from the TV screen.