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January 15, 2008

itunes_store

MW08: Debuting at the iTunes Store today - Movie Rentals

Posted Jan. 15, ’08, 12:57 PM PT by Aayush Arya
Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

Unsurprisingly enough, Apple announced today that you’ll henceforth be able to rent movies from the iTunes Store. The best news perhaps, is that a total of eleven movie studios have clambered aboard the iTunes Store bandwagon - 20th Century Fox, Lions Gate Films, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Miramax Films, New Line Cinema, Paramount, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Touchstone Pictures, Universal, Walt Disney and Warner Brothers. Yes, that’s right, all the major movie studios are walking the path laid out for them by Steve Jobs, which means that Apple will have over thousand movies on the iTunes Store by the end of February.

The movies will, of course, employ Apple’s FairPlay DRM technology and will be available for thirty days after being downloaded and twenty-four hours after clicking on ‘Play’. The prices are $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases, which will appear on the iTunes Store a month after their respective DVD releases. But you knew all that, you say? Here’s something that you probably didn’t know then. Apple is finally bringing high definition movies to the iTunes Store and they will be available for rent as well, if you are willing to pay an extra dollar for the better quality.

Rented movies can be played within seconds of starting the download, which means that you can start watching it while it downloads the whole movie in the background. Look for all these changes to happen later in the day today. We’ll keep you updated as more details trickle in.


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