Apple Premieres iTunes Movies in Australia and New Zealand

[MacRumors]

Apple announced today that movies from major film studios are now available on the iTunes Store in Australia and New Zealand. Both movie purchases and rentals are available from studies including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate.

The iTunes Store in Australia and New Zealand have over 700 films available for rent or purchase with new release titles available for purchase on the same day as DVD release.

“Movie fans in Australia and New Zealand can choose from a great selection of over 700 films for purchase and rent on the iTunes Store,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “iTunes provides an incredibly easy and fun way for people to discover and enjoy movies, and has quickly become the world’s most popular online movie store with customers renting and purchasing over 50,000 movies everyday.”

iTunes movies in Australia start at A$9.99 for catalog title purchases, A$17.99 for recent releases and A$24.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are A$3.99 for library title rentals and A$5.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just one dollar more.

iTunes movies in New Zealand start at NZ$9.99 for catalog title purchases, NZ$17.99 for recent releases and NZ$24.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are NZ$4.99 for library title rentals and NZ$6.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just one dollar more


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[richthomas]

YES! Finally!

EDIT: here is proof

[JGowan]

Congratulations A and New Z -- you deserve it!

[MacGohil]

This is will definitely be my favourite movie rental shop from now on. Thnx !

[TheSlush]

"Crocodile Dundee" available as a free download.

[arjaosx]

Yes! always wondered what the use is of AppleTV is in NZ if you cannot actually get movies though it hehe, now the only problem is getting telcos to lower their broadband rates and we'll all be happy

[retroneo]

This is great!

So do we now have parity with the US with everything Apple?

In the last few months:

iTunes Movies and Rentals
iTunes TV Shows
iPhone
iPhoto Printing

None of which were available here before....

Hopefully everything will be globally launched from now on.

[richthomas]

Ok so i can only see 19 movies. what happend to the "over 700" films. is Apple uploading the rest now?

[stellaclose]

This is new for the AUS iTunes movie rentals....48hrs to watch instead of 24hr in US

[stellaclose]

We have 1 up on the US store - 48hr rentals! ie 48hrs to finish watching, instead of 24hrs in US

Originally Posted by retroneo

This is great!

So do we now have parity with the US with everything Apple?

In the last few months:

iTunes Movies and Rentals
iTunes TV Shows
iPhone
iPhoto Printing

None of which were available here before....

Hopefully everything will be globally launched from now on.

[amac4me]

Congrats to Australian iTunes users!

[aristotle]

Originally Posted by stellaclose

This is new for the AUS iTunes movie rentals....48hrs to watch instead of 24hr in US

The Canadian version is also 48 hours. Congrats btw to you all down under.

[nhyde]

And this helps the Kiwi's and Aussie's who generally have very small bandwidth caps how?

[MacGohil]

Originally Posted by arjaosx

Yes! always wondered what the use is of AppleTV is in NZ if you cannot actually get movies though it hehe, now the only problem is getting telcos to lower their broadband rates and we'll all be happy

Even though I agree with lowering the Broadband tariff.... But still I feel..... "We can never win".....

[caprica]

Hooray, now I can finalse use my apple TV as nature intended.

[MacGohil]

Yeah... This would definitely justify the TV purchase .
But I will wait for the next Hardware Rev from Apple... With the falling prices of HDD and SSD I am sure apple will pull out a revision pretty soon.... I am waiting apple for pimped up TV!

[stracky]

okay so someone has to do it..... whats with the pricing of the full movie? $25 - same cost in US store is $15 and our exchange rate is hanging around 90% of US dollar. i can probably go to Target and get the double disc special edition box for $28-29...

okay rant over, it is nice to see we finally have the movies avaliable in aus and NZ but i think i will keep using the US itunes store for now

[Chundles]

Yay!

Now the TV will work properly AND new release movies are about $5 cheaper than a DVD!!

Things are good for we Aussies at last.

[mogzieee]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

Both movie purchases and rentals are available from studies including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate.

Not Universal Studios?

[Kace]

woohoo! finally

can justify getting an apple TV now.

prices arent too bad either. maybe a little steep for older movies.
rental price is avg. though they should make it cheaper for bulk renting

[TheReef]

Great News!

Too bad a lot of us don't have the internet connections that can actually make this conveniently useable…
12 Gig caps…256 KBit plans. Still, it's great to see Apple extending their services

I hope Telstra upgrades their plans soon!

[pmoeser]

The 48 hours is to give us time for the download....

Glad to see they restructured the pricing to factor in the excess download charges we pay for anything more than a few MB of download...

I just hope Groundhog Day is there!

I just hope Groundhog Day is there!

I just hope Groundhog Day is there!

[booksacool1]

Originally Posted by nhyde

And this helps the Kiwi's and Aussie's who generally have very small bandwidth caps how?

Small bandwidth caps? I'm on ADSL2+ (~12mbit)/50gb in brisbane. About $1.20/GB, not that I'd waste it on itunes.

But yeah, I suspect that the ADSL1/telstra port users will find the data costs too great. This probably constitutes most Australians.

[Kace]

Originally Posted by stracky

okay so someone has to do it..... whats with the pricing of the full movie? $25 - same cost in US store is $15 and our exchange rate is hanging around 90% of US dollar. i can probably go to Target and get the double disc special edition box for $28-29...

okay rant over, it is nice to see we finally have the movies avaliable in aus and NZ but i think i will keep using the US itunes store for now

true but we've always paid more. the same target DVD that costs 28-29 would cost like 15 in the US.
besides the AUD is plummeting 10 cents down to the dollar in a month.
and not to mention the size of the market, the greediness of the executives here....
still waiting for the ringtones store for my new white 3g iphone. i mean come on how hard can it be. doesnt a smaller market mean less red tape???

[TheReef]

Originally Posted by booksacool1

Small bandwidth caps? I'm on ADSL2+ (~12mbit)/50gb in brisbane. About $1.20/GB, not that I'd waste it on itunes.

But yeah, I suspect that the ADSL1/telstra port users will find the data costs too great. This probably constitutes most Australians.

But how much does that plan cost?
Outside main centers ADSL 2 is very limited and very expensive