News
iTunes menu reveals movie rental plans
By Charles Starrett
Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Monday, September 10, 2007
News Category: iTunes
A menu item in iTunes pointing to possible future movie rentals has been discovered. Mac OS developer David Watanabe on Friday posted a screenshot of a menu he discovered in iTunes’ problem reporting section, which contained several options mentioning “RentalMovie.” The options’ presence was confirmed by several others; all references to “RentalMovie” have since been removed from the menu by Apple.
The Financial Times reported in June that Apple was currently in talks with major movie studios regarding the launch of an iTunes-based online movie rental service. According to that report, the rentals would be priced at $2.99 for a 30-day rental, and would incorporate DRM that allowed transfer of the title to at least one other device, such as an Apple TV or iPod. The software would also prevent the movies from being copied. Many had speculated that a movie rental service would be introduced at Apple’s “Beat Goes On” special event last week.
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Gee it was just a few months ago when I said I would like to see this and everyone thought I was nuts. Folks it’s going to happen.
Shameless
Posted by Shameless on September 10, 2007 at 8:58 AM (PDT)
2
The Beat Goes On event was specifically about music though - that’s what the announcement or Steve Jobs said, I can’t remember which.
I think it will be in a separate event that will talk more about TV Shows, Movies, and other video content.
Posted by Jeremy on September 10, 2007 at 9:44 AM (PDT)
3
Those people were clueless then as this was obviously going to happen since the announcement of the AppleTV. There’s a huge amount of money to be made in downloadable rentals.
Posted by Jeff on September 10, 2007 at 1:28 PM (PDT)