Apple premieres movies on the iTunes Store

Written by Philip Roy | 14 August 2008
Posted in Apple

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 (www.itunes.com/au) and in New Zealand (www.itunes.com/nz). Movie purchases and rentals feature iTunes' legendary 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 favourites 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. "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.

Pricing & Availability
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 recommended retail price RRP A$9.99 inc GST for catalog title purchases, RRP A$17.99 inc GST for recent releases and RRP A$24.99 inc GST for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are RRP A$3.99 inc GST for library title rentals and RRP A$5.99 inc GST for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just one dollar more.

iTunes movies in New Zealand start at recommended retail price NZ$9.99 inc GST for catalog title purchases, RRP NZ$17.99 inc GST for recent releases and RRP NZ$24.99 inc GST for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are RRP NZ$4.99 inc GST for library title rentals and RRP NZ$6.99 inc GST for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just 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.

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Warren Hall said: August 17, 2008  

My experience purchasing a movie I had a day off so I thought I would give this new feature a crack. Incidentally when I downloaded the free song of the week on the way to the movie section I had to click that I agreed to the new terms and conditions, I scrolled down through them before agreeing and sure enough there was a bit in there about purchasing and renting movies. I downloaded Logan's Run, a great old movie. It was 1.25GB and while I did not wait up for it all to arrive in the end it was online to take something like 7 or 8 hours to download on my Orcon max/max broadband connection. So that leaves me wondering if the server it came off at Apple's end was swamped with other people checking it out and so I received it at a trickle, or is that what I can always expect? So, based on my experience, you would not want to buy one as a spontaneous purchase thinking you were going to be watching it shortly. I would be interested to hear of other peoples' experiences. Regards FerrisB

Darryn Lowe said: August 19, 2008 | url   

On New Zealand's current broadband speeds even Max is not fast enough. Apple uses very fast servers and so 1Gb can take a short time but with lots of people on at the same time it can also take a long time. Until New Zealand can get off their backsides and create an infrastructure capable of pushing through the amount of data required for this service it may be an up and down affair. Ultimately kick it off just before going to bed and it should be ready for you when you wake up. That's usually what I do.

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