“Apple has without explanation removed the ability to rent TV shows from both iTunes and its Apple TV, taking away what was just last year one of the major advertised selling points of the $99 streaming-centric set-top box,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“The option to rent episodes of TV shows is no longer available on either the Apple TV, or when browsing content via Apple’s iTunes application. Previously, participating networks offered users the ability to rent a TV episode for 99 cents, with 30 days to begin watching and 48 hours to complete it,” Hughes reports. “As further evidence that the ability to rent TV shows has been removed completely, an Apple support document entitled “iTunes Store: How to rent TV shows,” has been removed from the Web.”
Hughes reports, “The change to no longer allow rentals would seem to suggest that Apple’s experiment never paid off in terms of sales, or gained any new support from studios. Previously, Fox and ABC were the only two of the ‘big four’ major U.S. networks that had participated in Apple’s streaming offering.”
Read more in the full article here.
That’s too bad! I was looking forward to buying an AppleTV so I could take advantage of the rental service, and that way, I would definitely not need a cable TV subscription.
I have two apple tv’s now… I was just about to do the same to see if I could just use the apple tv instead of cable..
Wonder if there is something new coming, or the cable companies pulled the plug on apple.. Doubt that though, we would hear all about that in the news.
I lean toward the view that Apple is modifying the service rather than ending forever its ability to sell movies and TV episodes.
After all, Apple doesn’t incur (significant) costs of developing, producing or keeping product in inventory … those costs are borne by studios and others. Apple simply collects 30% of the revenue generated by each sale.
Also, you can be sure that DISNEY/ABC hasn’t refused to do business with the iTunes store, so it’s not a matter of Apple losing access to all of its content. CBS and others are only now growing comfortable with selling legacy TV shows over the web.
Instead, maybe this is all leading up to an early September announcement about AppleTV and/or a much-rumored new-age television from Apple.
For example Apple has a new deal with Hulu and others that will permit consumers to access far more content than ever before via AppleTV … bringing closer the day when replace our cable TV subscriptions once and for all.
Hmmm not a happy bunny as I’ve just bought ANOTHER. Apple Tv
One word: Channel subscriptions….
Worth considering if the price is right ….
Er…two words.
No. They are each one word….
😉
If it’s ESPN for $9.99 per month I’m on board.
At least NetFlix is still available.
I personally think that something new is coming.
iCloud
Seriously people actually buy tv episodes??
Apple tried to monetize the tv industry but it is a bust .
Movies at HD quality I would definatly buy .
TV shows no, so many places to view FREE …
I buy TV shows. I watch an average of 2 hours of TV a week- in the last year being mostly Mad Men and Friday Night Lights. I am more than happy to pay $2 or $3 each for hour-long episodes of quality shows in HD and on demand. I would prefer to rent them for $1 of course, but the shows I like were never included in Apple’s rental offerings anyway. Either way it’s a lot cheaper for me than cable, more convenient than Netflix (which doesn’t stream some shows meaning waiting for discs, and now high priced too) and of course I DEMAND and value that shows from iTunes are ad-free, making them way better than Hulu (Hulu plus being, as far as I’m concerned, a total scam no better than cable in that you have to pay AND watch commercials).
Most everything I want to watch on TV I can view from the networks’ websites. I actually have more choice than I have hours to watch. Luckily, I don’t have to watch when it’s on the air. I can watch programmes when I want to. Much better than cable or even off the air.
I would agree with you, except for the notion of being able to plug in the AppleTV to a television and watch it as a family. That would have made the AppleTV worth it for me. Now if they’ve reached deals to plug in hulu (or the network’s own streaming) into AppleTV, then that makes it a game changer.
Many people occasionally miss an episode of one of their favorite shows, and some shows aren’t available on the internet at all. A 99-cent rental from the iTunes Store is a great backup when you need it. But I can see how Apple might not have made much money renting reruns for a buck.
And there are virtually no adverts so it’s even better.
I haven’t even noticed.
Then again my aTV is jailbroken and i use it for just netflix and the amazong XBMC app.
Two words … Use Net (OK, technically usenet is only one word).
I think that the decision has a lot to do with the ability for users to stream TV Show purchases directly to Apple TV.
That’s not good news for us. We rent tv shows via apple tv, and it’s worth paying for it to avoid sitting through commercials.
Looks like Steve got out just in time. Cook will have to shoulder this on his own. Rentalgate!
Cook wont be able to handle the criticism and the board will let him go, appoint Steve CEO and look out brotha the third coming of Apple!!!
🙂
Please tell me you understand Watergate wasn’t about water.
Probably a bug.
I have a feeling this is HALF of the story. Another shoe is about to drop that will put this move in context…
Ditto.
Ditto, ditto.
Tritto, ditto.
Bingo Ringo.
It’s not without explanation – from Apple:
“iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said. “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.”
(via Daring Fireball and All Things D)
I think this explanation is bogus. There HAS to be more to it than this. Do you know anybody that would rather buy than rent?
The only reason I watch Netflix is because I can’t get iTunes streaming to work well. I watch TV shows on Netflix. I like it that when I find something I really like, there’s more than one episode. ..
I just don’t understand it. I CAN’T be the only person who DOES NOT WANT random episodes of television clogging up my hard drive, can I? And for this privilege, I have to pay a premium? No thanks. And Hulu Plus sucks, by the way. I’m paying a premium for this service and there are still episodes of some series (like Season One of Alphas, for instance) that aren’t available to stream.
maybe in iCloud TV show are free?
You’re thinking of life on iCloud 9…..
Wow, this is a bummer, I have over 2000 TV purchases that I don’t think I will ever watch a second time, We really enjoyed just renting. Hopefully this will be replaced with a subscription deal. I was also disappointed that IOS 5 will not allow AirPlay for Hulu Plus, hopefully they will add to ATV, like NetFlix
I use my AppleTV to watch YouTube videos and movies that I’ve rented on my Mac, so I really don’t care about this.
——RM
Movies you’ve rented on your Mac?
Where, if not the iTunes store, are you renting those?
Maybe this is part of Apple’s campaign to nudge TV networks to provide 99-cents rentals for its shows. (To date, they have resisted the 99-cent model.) If so, it already has several networks on board, and the others will be excluded from the iTunes store if they don’t wish to participate.
For Apple to force this solution onto reluctant networks, it needs either a significant market share today OR the promise of a much bigger market share in the near future. The current market share of iTunes customers isn’t huge, so the alternative is … a new AppleTV product that will appeal to a far larger audience than its current iTunes/AppleTV offering.
I’m gonna watch for a major announcement from Apple during the coming week!