On September 1, 2010, during Apple's iPod refresh press event, the company officially announced that select television episodes would be available for rent in addition to purchase from the iTunes download store. It was an attempt by Apple to expand the TV show download market. However it looks like that small experiment is now over. Today, as AllThingsD.com reports, Apple has now quietly removed the option to rent TV show episodes from the iTunes store.
The rentals were priced at 99 cents which let people watch the episode for 24 hours versus purchasing the shows outright for $1.99. However it appears that most customers didn't go for the different price model. In the end, it seems that Apple didn't want to support rentals anymore because of its upcoming iCloud service which will allow people to store TV episodes in their iCloud file space and stream them to their iPhone, iPad or other iCloud supported device. The service is currently in beta testing and will officially launch later this year. It's highly likely that iCloud's launch will coincide with the launch of the long awaited iPhone 5 as well as the next iPod device refresh.
An Apple spokesperson confirmed the move to remove the TV show rental option from iTunes, saying, "Tunes 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."
Comments (7)
ReplyWas hoping this would makes its way to Canada - I don't watch most shows more than once
I fail to see why I would want to purchase it when I KNOW I won't watch it again
It is the beginning of the end of the Apple era! Steve Jobs leaves the picture and this happens!
LOL.. watch them cancel Itunes all together over this year
since Billy Bob is gone, Apple is going down the road of no return...
The film/show selection was very limited in the UK, was best to look elsewhere than iTunes.
Most of the best stuff on iTunes in the uk was available for free on the BBC iPlayer. The rest - mostly us tv - wasn't really that big here anyway. Still, always nice to have another choice eroded by Apple's overlords deciding they know better.