Apple finally takes the UK out to the movies (Canada too)
By Thomas Ricker 
posted June 4th 2008 5:15AM
posted June 4th 2008 5:15AM
Update: Nope, after digging around the store it's clear that an Apple TV is still required for HD rentals. Picture proof after the break.
Update 2: The Canadian iTunes store is sporting films now as well. Come on Apple, Canada's not worthy of a press release? What's that aboot?
Update 3: Canadian press release now oot -- 1,200 films (not 700 in UK) now available for rent or purchase.
[Thanks, Nate and Zayn K.]
While I welcome this news, I must say I'm just as sceptical over buying Movies from iTunes as I was about buying TV shows.
If I buy an album from the ITS I can burn it to CD and play it in my car or on my stereo, the price is about the same as a CD and it's convenient, but if I buy a Movie/TV show I'm stuck with it on my iPod or my PC. I can't watch it anywhere else on any other device. Until all these suppliers come up with a standard way of selling video over the Internet I doubt that the market will develop.
Rentals on the other hand are a great idea, after all you aren't keeping the video so it doesn't matter about being able to transfer it. I would like to see some form of subscription service for rentals, before I'd consider them as the individual prices are a bit steep.
At those prices I won't be buying anything from them, but I'll definitely rent - I hate having to take rentals back.
Woooooooohooooooo, now there is a reason to use that apple tv that is collecting dust *screams while running off into the distance*
yea, if the movies were cheap = more sales +
I noticed that when you download a rental and click to play it, a window pops up and says:
Do you want to start playing the movie "{movie title}"?
You will have 48 hours to watch this movie.
Didn't this service launch in the US with a 24hr rental watch period? Has this been bumped everywhere?
We're getting ripped off in Canada too... $4.99 for a new release, not HD. I may try it once, to see the quality of the service and maybe write a blog post about it, but at that price it's just not worth it.
It's also a bummer that it's not integrated to Front Row. I don't want to sit right at my computer doing all the picking, since I either watch movies a few feet from my computer, or attach it to my TV and use my remote to watch content that I have on it.
If Apple drops the prices to match the States, integrates it to Front Row and increases the selection, I might look into using it more often. My local video stores are the same price, I think, but I haven't used them in a while. They still can't compare to Zip.ca though. Monthly subscription, anyone? Perhaps 15/month for $40 or something. Then we're getting reasonable.
Pundit
The pricing is the same price as rogers ondemand.Rod sales are massive people will pay.Now back to apple tv what may put it over rod is atv is a 48 hour rental while rod is 24 hours.
....more sales of apple tv, with this they're just alienating the UK market and treating them like cash cows which is not gonna work, the digital media needs to be sumthin like half th cost of dvd esp for older titles which can now be bought in box sets for a few squid a pop, not to mention sites like blockbuster and lovefilm which offer unlimited rentals from about £10 month
Wow, what a shitty selection. Thanks iTunes, you're the best!
Great pricing to! /sarcasm
Do you really think Apple has a small selection on purpose? In this case Apple is just a retailer, it's in their best interest to have as much content as possible on the store. So why don't they have every movie ever made up there?
Because of the studios. It's all about licensing, because the studios control the content. Blaming Apple for the selection is just ignorant, because it assumes Apple doesn't want to make more money by having more content. Which is ridiculous.
And in case you hadn't noticed, most things are more expensive in the UK and Canada compared to the US. This isn't an Apple thing. Hating Apple for the sake of hating Apple is passé, get a new thing.
Canada is just a victim of collateral damage from friendly fire again I guess huh.
I CANT WAIT FOR STEVE JOBS TO TAKE THE STAND!
"So this year we have some fantastic news... We have never abused the UK so much, look at the figures: we are ripping them off by 300% more compared to 5 years ago. Prices have never been so silly! We thought we pushed it with the price of music, iphone, macbook air... but this time we went beyond expectations! Fantastic news for movie studios, fantastic news for shareholders...
But that's not all.
We know that the UK has been waiting for Itunes Movies for a long time so we thought... why not use this opportunity to really, really take the piss with a naf selection of movies. That way if they buy naf movies at that price we will know we can really rape their wallet later.
This is exciting I know. The UK is a land of opportunities
But that's not al...
We have new products shipping worldwide and we can assure you that they will be more expensive in the UK."
S.J.
Haha. :)
Guys, you realize you can rent an unlimited amount of HD movies from LoveFilm for about £15 a month.
No french material in iTunes Canada movies rental section. I wonder if when you rent a film, you can choose the language as with DVD? If not, again iTunes Canada ignore completely that there's two official languages in Canada (as with Television series and Audiobook). A real shame!
I believe it's "oot."
"we're not interested apple, go away"
~Canada
Finally, I can watch The Darjeeling Limited on six devices...
Mode_e
I do not think you speak for all of canada.There are some that are very happy with this move.
I'm indiffernet, eh?!
Can't afford more entertainment... brain turning to mush...
must depend on rottentomatoes
So how do you actually go about downloading straight from ATV cos I'm buggered if I can find out how?!?! There doesn't even seem to be an option, yet...
Any fellow UK ATV users out there having the same problem?
A reboot sorted it!