iTunes Movie Rentals Good For 48 Hours (In the UK & Canada)

Filed by Dave Zatz under Industry, Media, Movies

Jun 4 2008

Apple’s now offering movies via iTunes in the UK and in Canada. But that doesn’t interest me so much – it wasn’t a question of if, it was a question of when. The real news here is that they’ve obviously worked a deal with the studios to permit a 48 hour viewing period. A current pain point for many (real or perceived) is the 24 hour limit to complete watching a rental. I’ve thought 36 hours should be sufficient to allow ‘film interrupted’ folks to resume viewing their flick on a consecutive evening. While Vudu has taken things into their own hands (and probably at their own cost) to offer 24 hours of extended viewing (48 total) for an additional $2, perhaps the tide is turning and we’ll hear something (other than iPhone 2.0) out of WWDC next week…

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6 Responses for "iTunes Movie Rentals Good For 48 Hours (In the UK & Canada)"

Todd June 4th, 2008 at 5:37 pm 1
Confused. Why limit it at all? You paid for it. The movie of dripping with DRM and is locked to a closed, proprietary device, no one else will be able to see it.

Surprisingly “hostile” tone from Apple, I thought they were all “free love” “be cool to each other” “Be like Bono” and stuff.

Has anyone ever lined up Amazon’s Unbox ( what I use ) against the iTunes movie store? Does Unbox have at least a comparable selection compared to Apple? I think Unbox is cheaper too, no DRM, media doesn’t “die” can be written to a DVD to watch on plane.
Dave Zatz June 4th, 2008 at 6:15 pm 2
I believe Unbox has more video than Apple, but they’re also restricted (by the studios) to offering a 24 hours rental in most cases. The Vudu people tell me some of the smaller, indy, foreign, etc studios have granted them longer viewing periods.
Ivan June 4th, 2008 at 10:46 pm 3
Dave is correct in pointing out that independent studios offer 48 hour rental window on Vudu. But if Apple or any other provider convinces major studios to offer that, it’s going to be good for others as Vudu/Microsoft/Amazon/etc. will sure push for same terms too (terms are pretty much the same across all on-demand services, it’s the content mix that’s different).

Personally, I think Unbox is going to be in a same class as AppleTV, Vudu, and 360 only when it starts offering HD content via PCs or high-def TiVos. I own TiVo, 360, and Vudu and I can honestly say that Vudu is my first option. 360 isn’t bad, but I just hate the point system. Interface for Unbox on TiVo is absolutely horrible plus it’s not instant like Vudu (or near-instant like ATV).

P.S. I’d have gotten ATV for media extender functionality a long time ago, but it can’t handle high-quality high-def content. Now, where’s that Slingcatcher, Dave???
Bluesubaru June 5th, 2008 at 10:26 pm 4
I don’t know why anyone limits a rental to 24 hours; at the minimum it should be 26 hours. If you can’t finish watching the video on the first night, you have enough time to watch the whole thing (usually 2 hours) at the same time the next night.
Roger June 6th, 2008 at 1:57 pm 5
The rental prices on unbox (Tivo) and iTunes (atv) seem about the same to me. But, it’s the fear of dozing off that keeps me from renting more films from either one. 48 hours seems like a big improvement if apple can bring that stateside.
Brian September 19th, 2008 at 6:07 pm 6
I think another idea might be to vary the amount depending on the broadband speed?