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Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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iTunes May Start Movie Rentals
January 09, 2008 3:10 PM
Apple has remade the media business by allowing people to download music and videos, and now there's a new wrinkle. Bloomberg News quotes sources as saying iTunes users will soon be able to rent movies for $3.99 for 24 hours. There's more from Apple Insider. The films would reportedly come from Disney, Warner Bros., Fox, Paramount and other studios. (Disclaimer: Disney is the parent company of ABCNews.com, and Apple's Steve Jobs is on the Disney board of directors, but they are not the source of this information.)
It's a logical move. When VCRs appeared in the 1980s, studios tried to sell movies on tape, but there wasn't much business for films that people would watch once and then put on the shelf to gather dust. People were, however, happy to go to the corner store, rent a film, and drop it off when they were done with it.
Will rental downloads work for Apple? People certainly are comfortable downloading TV shows from iTunes, "owning" the files even though they may never watch more than once. Netflix has tried downloaded film rentals already, but with a limited selection of films.
Word has it that Apple will announce the rental plan Jan. 15, and Apple stock jumped this morning.
January 9, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (3)
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If Apple is indeed interested in offering movie rentals as downloads from iTunes, it would also be highly beneficial for one of their heretofore little-advertised products--the Apple TV media center. That product was designed to distribute iTunes content from computers and iPods and enable it to be played on television. Video rentals via iTunes would further burnish Apple's reputation as the company with the style and smarts to do anythin in this brave, new, digital world.
Posted by: chuck | Jan 9, 2008 3:45:20 PM
Whoever is first will eat the market alive! Go Apple, go!!!
Posted by: buck rogers | Jan 9, 2008 8:28:49 PM
Apple is already eating the market. I took how many years for Microsoft to make the Zune? Which still isn't as popular as the iPod. And Apple's Macs are gaining wide popularity. MS's Windows Vista has been a big flop for them. Now there's almost no competition for movie rentals like that, with the exception of Netflix. I agree with Buck. Go Apple Go!!!
Posted by: Lawrence | Jan 10, 2008 1:07:24 PM
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