Valleywag
The Financial Times reports that Apple and News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox film studio have signed a deal for digital movie rentals. Consumers will be able to rent the latest Fox DVD releases from iTunes for a limited time. The deal, which will likely be announced at Macworld in January, would likely be matched with an upgrade for the woebegotten Apple TV which has been de facto dead on arrival since it was released. It is suspected that Disney, which has extremely close ties with Apple — Steve Jobs is its largest shareholder after Mickey bought his Pixar animation studio — will be on board at launch as well.
One analyst said "Fox and potentially other studios are coming around to the idea that there is nobody out there to challenge iTunes." The rumor mill pegged Sony, Paramount and Warner Bros. as having talks with Apple about movie rentals, but this is the first concrete evidence of a deal. With Apple getting into millions of homes as a result of increased Mac sales and millions of video-savvy iPods and iPhones sold this holiday, the service could get off the ground much faster than competing services from Amazon or Netflix, which have foundered. We mentioned the possibility of Apple setting up a movie rental service back in November.
Comments
"We mentioned the possibility of Apple setting up a movie rental service back in November." Gosh such visionaries, wow. Everybody mentioned that, don't dare try and take credit for that one.
So far you've posted here three times, Ireland. Each post is nasty and/or angry. Problems?
@johnnypotatoes:
Actually, Ireland has been right each time. It would be hard to sustain that sort of accuracy after hundreds or thousands of posts, but the fact the he/she has nailed it on two threads is unsurprising.
dear steve,
now that you seem to be ready to let me rent movies, can I please rent songs on itunes? i'm sick of stealing them from limewire and would like to pay money but my catalog is, like, massive, and to pay a buck for each tune would bankrupt me. I'll pay $20 per month.
namaste,
gyaku
@Deprong Mori: True. What VW should have taken credit for is spotting this story pretty quick. I don't like the patting on own back they do either. Just saying. Great find, Jordan! Spliced to Giz.
I think this may not be good news for Vudu (of which I am a user). If Apple manages to deal their way into same or better terms (more titles, less restrictions on viewing times, faster availability, etc.), Vudu would be wise to add media extender functionality to their unit so it could compete with Apple TV.
This makes total sense for Apple. Rentals could be the trojan horse for both the Apple TV and to get more users going to iTunes for video. Once he can get the studios into bed, it's just a matter of time before they will allow video purchases. I can eventually see season passes on TV - this won't threaten DVD sales. This may not seem like a huge announcement now, but it should lead to really cool opportunities down the road.
i also heard that apple and pixar might be on together, it used to be owned by Jobs. This article is great, and I posted it on my blog with extra comments, [www.opentopix.com]
@Ireland: @Brian Lam: Ow! OK, my arm is broken from patting myself on the back. Apologies, apologies...
The article mentions that Netflix and Amazon has foundered, but I suspect (unmentioned) CinemaNow.com's sizable adult content library subsidizes the more "legit" family entertainment library they offer. Perhaps the combination of Appie TV and a widely used, well executed UI (iTunes) will help, but I'm not convinced that this pay-for-play model - apart for adult entertainment - is viable. Good luck to them, though, always nice to have more legal channels for online content!
@hungarian33: As we mentioned, Disney bought Pixar from Jobs.
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