Apple Extends iTunes Movie Rental Window to 48 Hours in United States

[mariusignorello]

Apple Video is coming. I can see it already. I will be the first to state this

 

[BWhaler]

Awesome. Well done Apple.

 

[ILikeAllOS]

This is great!
The only thing that can make it better would be to finally lower the price!

Seriously, why is Apple charging $3.99 to rent that Finding Dory in digital format when I could rent a physical copy of the same movie for $1.50 at a Redbox?

 

[ejpeg]

FINALLY!!!!!

 

[macs4nw]

Apple is really forcing themselves into the streaming picture. Besides prices, they’re the best.

Remember, streaming was the future, because BluRay was a 'bag of hurt'.

 

[ItsGavinC]

That's good news. It takes me back to the days of rushing back to Blockbuster Video with their next day returns policy for recent releases - and they actually needed the cassettes in store physically to make money on them.

Exactly, that was so they could re-rent them. Realistically, we should be able to rent the movie and then it should disappear 24 hours AFTER you first FINISH watching the movie. That means you could rent it, watch part of it, watch the rest 3 weeks later if you want, and then when you finish it it would delete a day later.

 

[rbonzer]

While I like this change, what I would really want is that during my 48 hour window, if I liked the movie enough to buy it, I could convert it to a purchase, with the rental price going towards the purchase price.

 

[Yumbo]

Anyone know when Apple let you move rentals across devices? That isn’t new too, is it? I distinctly remember buying a rental for a trip on my Mac only to discover it wouldn’t transfer to my iPhone (Apple was very generous with the credit, though).

That was from the beginning.
Rentals in the cloud is this year.
You still have to move or delete downloads or use Home Sharing if downloaded.
[doublepost=1506119424][/doublepost]

Woohoo, nice change. My wife has a tendency to fall asleep halfway through movies and we save them for the next night, but always end up losing them because we start too late. Hopefully Amazon does the same.

If you pause it, and keep it active, you can go past the window.
[doublepost=1506119575][/doublepost]

iTunes rentals are too expensive. The only time I’ve ever done it was during a winter storm and we were snowed in.

99c rentals mate.

 

[redscull]

This is great!
The only thing that can make it better would be to finally lower the price!

Seriously, why is Apple charging $3.99 to rent that Finding Dory in digital format when I could rent a physical copy of the same movie for $1.50 at a Redbox?

Yeah I don’t understand their high rental prices. Some are like $5.99. That’s just ridiculous. I do pay attention for their rental sales, those 99¢ specials. I’ve rented plenty of those, but I don’t enjoy that monitoring process. Honestly if they'd just make their standard rental price $1.99 and 99¢ I wouldn’t even keep my NetFlix subscription. I’d spend that $10/mo on Apple rentals and be just as content. Nor would Redbox ever see me again. It makes me wonder if Apple takes a loss or something on the 99¢ specials that those can’t just be the norm.

 

[Yumbo]

Yeah I don’t understand their high rental prices. Some are like $5.99. That’s just ridiculous. I do pay attention for their rental sales, those 99¢ specials. I’ve rented plenty of those, but I don’t enjoy that monitoring process. Honestly if they'd just make their standard rental price $1.99 and 99¢ I wouldn’t even keep my NetFlix subscription. I’d spend that $10/mo on Apple rentals and be just as content. Nor would Redbox ever see me again. It makes me wonder if Apple takes a loss or something on the 99¢ specials that those can’t just be the norm.

Prices set by providers.

 

[tatsumi]

Not only the US, here in Japan as well.

 

[Cougarcat]

That was from the beginning.
Rentals in the cloud is this year.
You still have to move or delete downloads or use Home Sharing if downloaded.

It definitely wasn't possible before.

 

[leesweet]

While I like this change, what I would really want is that during my 48 hour window, if I liked the movie enough to buy it, I could convert it to a purchase, with the rental price going towards the purchase price.

I said this in another thread... yep, why pay twice if you decide to buy?! Lots of movies you don’t know from the preview or other reviews if you want to purchase it...

Has to be a contract thing but I have no idea why. They would have to make more money than the few rentals they lose in getting absorbed into the purchase price.

 

[Defthand]

There are plenty of fantastic films released every year. Unsurprisingly, people who are complaining about "tentpole" movies, or sequels, or "another superhero movie", aren't making a point to see them (this is a bit like the "Current music stinks" argument - sure, popular music played on the radio, but there's amazing stuff coming from lesser known artists).

I assume you’re speaking of independent films and the like, rather than the major studio movies that dominate the iTunes banner. True, there’s hidden gems there, but the iTunes rating system that represents the collective tastes of viewers, rather than your own tastes (like Netflix does), is misleading. I can’t tell you how many highly-rated movies I gambled on that turned out to be the infantile likings of adolescents.

 

[jazzhustler]

I was astonished when reading the headline, as it was 48h in Germany ever since. But as mentioned it seems to differ per country.

I was curious about this news too, as in Taiwan (where I live) and the UK (where I used to live) it's always been 48 hours.

 

[Tech198]

this seems good... 24 hours didn't seem to cut it. Personally, if Apple only gave you 24 hours to watch it offline, i'd consider them 'cheating'

 

[alexanderkilts]

This is why we've usually rented via Amazon (which already offered 48 hours) over Apple. Glad they're moving to keep competitive.

Though now we have to stick with Amazon because we have a Roku and Apple's the one provider that doesn't play nice with them. :|

 

[omenatarhuri]

It’s been 48h here in Funland forever, works great. We often split to two nights.

 

[HMFIC03]

Awesome move !

 

[cyberlocke]

Better. But now they need to lower their rental prices. With all the $1.50 off coupons I get from Redbox, DVD rental is free (just pay tax) and Blu-ray is $0.50 + tax. And with Play Pass, every 11th rental is free.
[doublepost=1506112738][/doublepost]

Agreed. The funny thing is, we would inevitably forget to return our Redbox movies after 24 hours, often ending up with 2-4 days worth of rental fees, so it ended up being about the same as an iTunes rental anyways.

 

[seclusion]

I never understood why it had a time limit. Apple knows when you’ve watched it, so why have it expire at all?

 

[TsMkLg068426]

I am still waiting for HD Music come on Apple why are we still living in the 90s.

 

[ErikGrim]

Seriously, why is Apple charging $3.99 to rent that Finding Dory in digital format when I could rent a physical copy of the same movie for $1.50 at a Redbox?

Convenience?

 

[iMas70]

Now I have an extra day to finish what I'm watching when a movie night with my girl turns into an iTunes and chill night.

 

[charlituna]

Only 5 years after Amazon and Google did it. Let's celebrate Apple!

Apple was probably stuck on long time contracts that just ended. And the fact that the studios let amazon and google have 48 would have helped them in negotiating new contracts
[doublepost=1506266864][/doublepost]

Seriously, why is Apple charging $3.99 to rent that Finding Dory in digital format when I could rent a physical copy of the same movie for $1.50 at a Redbox?

Apple nothing. The content owners get to set the price, within contractually agreed upon limits. Disney picked $3.99 for that title