iTunes movies now available in Canada
June 4, 2008
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Apple® today announced that movies from major film studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate and Maple Pictures are now available on the iTunes® Store in Canada (www.itunes.ca).
Movie purchases and rentals feature iTunes’ legendary ease of use, which makes discovering and enjoying movies as simple and easy as buying music on iTunes has always been. “Canadians have made iTunes the most popular place to find and buy music and TV shows online,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. Read more
Movies on iTunes Same Day as DVD Release
May 1, 2008
Apple announced that it will offer movies on iTunes the same day they are released on DVD. Included in the deal are new releases and catalog titles from 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios.
Apple pricing for new releases will be 14.99$.
New releases available for purchase on the iTunes Store this week, concurrent with their DVD release, include “American Gangster” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Other popular titles now available for purchase include “Juno,” “Cloverfield,” “I Am Legend,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.”
Too bad this does not include a rental model… I could have used this before “buying” the whole movie. I mean, I can rent the same thing at BlockBuster for 4.99$. Had they offered a 4.99$ option for rental I would have ditched BlockBuster and gone to iTunes for all rental.
Oh! It is only for US residents… So sorry Canada!
New iTunes Canadian TV content leaves me cold
December 12, 2007
Apple® today announced that hit television programming from Canada’s top networks, US broadcasters and the National Hockey League (NHL) is now available for CAN$1.99 per episode from the iTunes® Store in Canada (www.itunes.ca). iTunes customers can choose from Canadian-produced favorites such as the top-rated, award-winning “Corner Gas” from CTV, smash hit comedy “Little Mosque on the Prairie” from CBC, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning “South Park” from Comedy Central and the NHL Games of the Year.
This content really blows. Joost already provide much of the same content for free. Think of the Joost NHL and CFL content. I am not going to spend 1.99 per South Park episode… no thank you.
What I want is to move away from torrent sites for prime time TV series. And iTunes ain’t going to give me that… So nice try but no thanks.
At least Microsoft is offering some half decent movies on the new Canadian Live Video Marketplace.
TV to make its debut on iTunes Canada this week
December 11, 2007
TV shows on iTunes have proven to be rather popular, even with little foibles like losing NBC and all of its shows. So far, only the US and UK have been able to purchase individual (or seasons of) shows through the iTunes Store, but we’ve heard rumblings for quite some time that licensing deals were being worked out for other countries. One such country is our neighbor in the great white north.
But anxious Canadians won’t have to wait much longer. As 2007 winds to a close, Apple plans to give an early Christmas gift to our Canadian friends in the form of (a few) TV shows being added to the iTunes Store. The company plans to begin adding shows quietly to the store as early as tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon or evening, with an official launch expected for Wednesday if things go smoothly, our sources tell us. Of course, with all things iTunes (and Apple), these exact days can easily get pushed, but the shows are expected to make their debut at most within the next couple of weeks.
Upon launch, the Canadian iTunes Store won’t carry a ton of content, but it’ll certainly get the ball rolling. Users will begin to see shows from CBC, CTV, and a handful of shows from US networks. Oh, and for you hardcore Canadians out there, we hear that you can look forward to spying some NHL games through the iTunes Store too.
I am sure Microsoft will follow soon with a similar announcement for XBOX Live Video Marketplace.
Update:
Guess what, Microsoft apparently took the lead quicker than I thought: http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/
This might in fact be why Apple is turning iTunes TV in for all those country. I mean… Apple surely does not want Microsoft to take a clear lead.
Now, if Joost could start to open up more content restricted to the US to the rest of the world! Guess what… apparently it can be done. Joost, are you listening?
Fox to offer TV free shows samples on iTunes
September 21, 2007
The Fox-Apple deal is designed to expose iPod users to the upcoming season of new and returning prime-time shows. Executives with the News Corp.-owned network hope that free downloads of such shows as “Prison Break,” “Bones,” “American Dad” and “K-Ville” will entice viewers to watch later installments on TV or pay to download them from the iTunes store.
Albert Cheng, executive vice president of digital media for the Disney-ABC Television Group, said the partnership with AOL would provide ABC broader online distribution of such popular returning shows as “Lost” and new programs like “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Pushing Daisies” that premiere this fall. “ABC.com is a platform. The Fox-Apple deal comes as the broadcast networks scramble to raise awareness of their shows for the TV season that begins Monday.
Snaring marquee space on Apple’s iTunes store should help expose Fox’s shows to a younger and largely affluent audience, he said.
This is not the first time that free premiere episodes of network shows have been made available on iTunes. A year ago, NBC offered “Heroes” on iTunes. The show went on to become a big hit. “Our goals are alike,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, said of the Fox deal. “Fox is interested in selling shows and getting people to watch them on TV. We are helping promote both the buying of shows and watching of TV. If people watch a show on TV, they are more likely to buy a download if they miss an episode.”
Source: LATimes
iTunes movie rentals? Maybe soon
September 12, 2007
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Apple is in talks with major Hollywood studios about launching a movie rental service from its popular iTunes store, according to a report Tuesday.
Apple (down $0.78 to $135.93, Charts, Fortune 500) is believed to be working towards starting the new service some time in the fall which would offer a 30-day rental for $2.99, according to the Financial Times.
A deal would allow iPod users to watch movies during the rental period without purchasing the entire film, which could be a very popular service for the millions of users of the video-enabled version of the device.
iTunes rentals could mount a serious challenge to cable and satellite TV providers who are working on offering a large library of on-demand films from the major studios, said the report.
Video on demand has been lucrative so far for cable companies like Comcast (Charts) and satellite operators like DirecTV (Charts, Fortune 500), but none of the cable operators has as many customers as Apple does.
Rights management software would allow the movies to be viewed on an iPod or iPhone, but would prevent them from being copied, according to Financial Times.
Apple already sells films online, including titles by Walt Disney and Paramount. But the number of films available on iTunes is still small compared to the number of titles available on DVD.
The major studios, including Sony (Charts), News Corp.’s (Charts) 20th Century Fox, Viacom’s (Charts, Fortune 500) Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Time Warner’s (Charts, Fortune 500) Warner Bros and Disney (Charts, Fortune 500) declined to comment on the report, according to FT.
Movie Rental coming to iTunes US store
September 8, 2007
Engadget indicates that Movie rentals could be coming to the iTunes Store.
An apparent slip-up by Apple is any indication. Mac developer David Watanabe uploaded a screenshot depicting an iTunes problem reporting system which has options for requesting a refund due to non-delivery of rental movies. The other options for reporting issues with the as yet unannounced — but rumored — rental movie options on the iTunes Store include accidental purchase, poor content quality, duplicate purchase, wrong version, bad metadata, and “other.”
Engadget verified that these options are still viewable on a US iTunes Store account: see for yourself by viewing your account purchase history, clicking report problem, and then clicking on an individual purchase.
[Source: engadget.com]
NBC pulling out of iTunes
August 31, 2007
Digital trends report that:
”
Less than two months after Universal Music decided not to enter into another year-long music distribution with iTunes Apple looks to be facing another high-profile defector from its digital media offerings: according to The New York Times, related company NBC Universal will not be renewing its deal to distribute digital versions of its television shows via the iTunes store.
The pull-out would not only impact shows like Heroes and The Office from the NBC broadcast network, but also shows from NBC Universal’s sibling networks like the Sci-Fi Channel and USA, so shows like Battlestar Galactica and Monk would also disappear.
ABC would like to be able to charge more for recently broadcast, popular shows in order to maximize revenue, while discounting shows in its back catalog (like, say, the original season of Law & Order, which aired umpteen years ago) in order to encourage sales.
Although NBC Universal does not currently offer Universal movies for sale via iTunes, the company would reportedly like to offer bundles of its TV shows with its movies.
Apple has historically favored consistent, across-the-board pricing, arguing differential pricing confuses and irritates consumers, which leads to fewer sales.
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Does it have anything to do with Hulu? Maybe! But it is certainly a sad news for current U.S. iTunes users.
iTunes-like video services have no future: study
May 14, 2007
Source: http://www.reuters.com/
“In the video space, iTunes is just a temporary flash while consumers wait for better ways to get video. They’re already coming,” said Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey, the author of the study, who also called the paid download video market a “dead end.”
Confusion over different video file formats, difficulties watching downloaded videos on television screens and other technical problems have kept average users from paying for shows online.
Efforts by traditional media distribution companies to make more of their shows available for free on the Internet — including the Hollywood-backed film service MovieLink, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s service and Amazon.com Inc.’s Unbox service — are also working against paid services.
Led by Walt Disney Co.’s ABC.com, TV networks including News Corp.’s Fox are offering some hit shows online for free.
Cable TV service executives and set top box makers are also seeking to make online videos easier to watch on big TV screens — a major topic of discussion at last week’s cable industry trade show in Las Vegas.
Also… don’t forget about Joost!
Young viewers lifestyle threatening traditional TV model
April 4, 2007
Summary of post found at http://macenstein.com/:
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Battlestar Galactica (iTunes ranked 3, and 11) and South Park (iTunes ranked 7, 8, and 12) both fail to crack the Top 20 cable shows each week, and consistently lose out to shows such as The Fairly Odd Parents and reruns of House and Spongebob Squarepants.
20-year-old Jeff, a full time college student at Illinois State University, explains his situation; “Most of my friends and I actually end up waiting for the DVD box sets of a show to come out, and then we watch them in marathon sit-down sessions.
Perhaps this is the reason why so many of the highly rated shows sold on iTunes are of the LOST, Heroes, 24, and Prison Break variety, where there is one long-reaching story arc that needs to be followed. People with hectic schedules who are likely to miss an episode of such a show will be “Lost” when they try to watch the next week’s episode.
They know that the more comfortable children get using a specific brand of technology, the more likely they are to continue to seek out that familiar brand as they get older…. Whether through the “low-tech”method of waiting for DVD box sets to be released, or the instant gratification of the iTunes Store, it looks like viewing habits are being molded.
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