Apple today announced that movies from major film studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate are now available on the iTunes Store in Australia and in New Zealand.
Movie purchases and rentals feature iTunes’ ease of use, which makes discovering and enjoying movies as simple and easy as buying music on iTunes has always been. The iTunes Store in Australia and New Zealand feature over 700 films for rent or purchase, with new release titles available for purchase on the same day as their DVD release, including favorites such as “National Treasure 2,” “Jumper,” “27 Dresses,” “Cloverfield,” “Vantage Point” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”
“Movie fans in Australia and New Zealand can choose from a great selection of over 700 films for purchase and rent on the iTunes Store,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services, in the press release. “iTunes provides an incredibly easy and fun way for people to discover and enjoy movies, and has quickly become the world’s most popular online movie store with customers renting and purchasing over 50,000 movies everyday.”
With iTunes Movie Rentals, once a movie is rented, it starts downloading from the iTunes Store directly to iTunes or Apple TV, and users with a fast Internet connection can start viewing the movie in seconds. Customers have up to 30 days to start watching it, and once a movie has been started customers have 48 hours to finish it—or watch it multiple times. iTunes Movie Rentals also feature over 100 titles available in stunning high definition, perfect for viewing on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.
Movie purchases and rentals from the iTunes Store for Mac or Windows require iTunes 7.7.1, available as a free download from www.itunes.com/au or www.itunes.com/nz. iTunes movie purchases and rentals require a valid credit card with a billing address in Australia or New Zealand as applicable.
iTunes movies in Australia start at A$9.99 for catalog title purchases, A$17.99 for recent releases and A$24.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are A$3.99 for library title rentals and A$5.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at one dollar more. iTunes movies in New Zealand start at NZ$9.99 for catalog title purchases, NZ$17.99 for recent releases and NZ$24.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are NZ$4.99 for library title rentals and NZ$6.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at one dollar more. Movie rentals can be previewed, purchased and watched on iPod classic, iPod nano with video, iPod touch, iPhone and on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.
Source: Apple Inc.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
So, crack open a Fosters and enjoy a good flick down under…
Fosters? nah.
VB!
VB – That’s Victoria Bitter.
Not Visual Basic.
XXXX is a reasonable substitute.
And all you horndogs out there, XXXX is also a beer. Not some kind of extra perverted movie.
Buggered if I’m downloading a couple of gigs of movie – that’d add $15 of bandwidth cost to the already expensive iTunes charge. I’ll get it from blockbuster and save a fortune.
Aussie beer is as horrid as US beer. I’ll stick to Monteiths & Steinlager Pure, thanks
Guinness is good for you.
With a name like “baaaa”, he must drink his beer from sheep grenades.
48 Hours???
Aussie beer can be very good, just don’t go for the crap large beer makers like VB and XXXX. Little Creatures from Fremantle, Western Australia is a great little beer.
It’s only $3.99 for a new release DVD from the video store. I hope they drop the price a little.
At least now I have a real reason to buy an Apple TV.
BTW, Speights is the only real beer worth talking about!
If anyone can help I have a quick question…
If I rent a movie via iTunes and after I finish watching it I decide I really like it and would like it in my collection forever, do I get a reduced price if I then purchase it from the iTunes store?
Thanks
p.s. Why drink beer when our wine is tops!
iiNet allows the downloading of music/videos/movies from the Australian iTunes Store without counting towards your quota.
Lately, it hasn’t been counting my downloads from the US iTunes too! It appears in the freezone section.
US iTunes rentals are much cheaper, but I’m quite happy Australians have a wider choice for rentals now than ever before.
For me, TiVo at $399+, which only provides the ability to record Free to Air channels sucks totally!! I’d rather get an Apple TV (I already have one) if I had to choose.
@kiwichick:
Yes, you get a 0% discount.