Link This | Email this | Blog This | Comments (0)

Apple to Join Movie Rental Biz
June 11, 2007

So says the Financial Times in a story out today.  The paper says the company is in advanced talks with major studios and plans a fall launch with rentals costing around $2.99, a little less than other online services and cable companies sell rental downloads and VOD for. Apple isn't talking (CEO Steve Jobs didn't talk downloads in his keynote today at the comapny's annual developer conference.)

The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, takes a look at why studios haven't gotten into business with Apple, given that it's the biggest player in online video. Not much new ground is covered - the studios don't want Apple to become the next, dare-I-say, Wal-Mart, with a lions share of business and the influence to get its demands met. Still, with the download business so small, I wonder why they don't figure out a way to join with the one company that seems to have the potential to really make movie downloads a business, rather than something with mere potential.

It wouldn't be too surprising for Apple to enter the rental business, there's been speculation that they would since before they began doing movie downloads. And now, Apple desperately needs more video content to sell its Apple TV. The company is big in TV downloads, but frankly, most people can already get TV on their TV. Movies would be the big add. Right now, iTunes only sells new release films from Disney and catalog movies from Disney, Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM. Apple and other studios have been unable to come to terms on pricing for new release movies; Apple reportedly wants to pay less than DVD wholesale, the studios refuse.

Digital rental has also proven to be a popular option with consumers - Movielink and Cinemanow have both said that customers rent more movies than they buy. If Warner and other studios do away with the pay-per-view window (and it's looking more like they will everyday) that could boost the rental download business even more since those movies would be available the same time they're released on DVD rather than a month or two later.

Posted by Jennifer Netherby on June 11, 2007 | Comments (0)