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Retail wins with iTunes rentals
January 15, 2008

Apple's move into rental downloads could strike fear into the heart of any traditional rental retailer. After all, there are only about 100 million iPods in consumer's hands. 

But, there were two pieces of good new for retailers of packaged media in Apple's announcement today.

First, iTunes rentals will occur in the traditional pay-per-view window, 30 days after DVD release.

Second, rather than providing its movies for sell-through on iTunes, Fox will embed digital copies that are transferable to iPods on dozens of its DVD titles this year. Talk about providing consumers with their digital options while protecting the packaged media business!

No word currently on whether other studios have struck the same deal, though both Warner and Sony have either embedded digital copies on their packaged media already or have plans to. 

The problem with those files up until now is that they could not be played on an iPod, which is the most popular portable media player by far. 

Posted by Marcy Magiera on January 15, 2008 | Comments (0)