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Apple TV Gains TV Show Purchasing and Streaming in Australia, Canada, and UK

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Several MacRumors readers have reported that Apple has rolled out new Apple TV support for streaming purchased television shows in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Users in those countries have been able to rent movies directly on the Apple TV, but purchased content was required to be downloaded to a computer and then streamed to the Apple TV via Home Sharing. With the new update, purchased TV shows are simply stored in iCloud and streamed directly to the Apple TV on demand.

apple_tv_shows_australia.jpg
TV shows on Apple TV in Australia (Source: Mac Prices Australia)​
Apple TV streaming of purchased TV shows came to the United States back in August. That addition was accompanied by a new TV Shows section of the purchased items listings in iTunes, allowing users easy access to download purchased shows to any device.

Besides TV show purchases, Apple had previously offered 99-cent rentals of TV episodes. Apple discontinued that offering in August, noting that customers preferred to purchase their shows and that the new iCloud flexibility offered additional benefit to purchases.

Update: It appears that the new menu option may have been released prematurely, as a number of users are reporting that the TV show option is either not functioning or has disappeared completely.

Article Link: Apple TV Gains TV Show Purchasing and Streaming in Australia, Canada, and UK
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/12/08/apple-tv-gains-tv-show-purchasing-and-streaming-in-australia-canada-and-uk/
This is great news for international customers
 
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doesn't seem to be doing much for me at the moment.
the menu has appeared but selecting "top tv shows" or "genres" gives a "your request could not be completed" message.

selecting any of the tv shows listed in the carousel, i only get preview options (same if i manually search for any tv show that have i have purchased).

in "tv networks", the only network currently listed is "aardman studios".
 
I find that PLEX and "Channels" allows me to watch US programming whenever I want (streaming).
 
They recently rolled out movie rentals and officially released AppleTV here in Sweden. I absolutely love renting films on it, and skipping the hassle of going to the store. I'm hoping TV shows arrive quickly too.
 
Great news! It was a bit of a pain always having to go to the Mac to buy an episode, then wait for it to download so I could stream it to the Apple TV with AirPlay.
 
I love avoiding the hassle of going to the video store but the price differential is too steep. Here I can rent for 1$ a disk which usually includes 4 episodes, while on apple TV it costs 3,49 per episode, that makes it 14 times more expensive :mad:
 
storage

Definitely makes iTunes more appealing to me...getting tired of storing all this stuff, ripping discs (or other methods of acquisition), adding metadata, hard drives, Drobo, etc...interesting times. :)

How does the streaming work...does it adapt quality on the fly like Netflix?
 
OddyOh said:
Definitely makes iTunes more appealing to me...getting tired of storing all this stuff, ripping discs (or other methods of acquisition), adding metadata, hard drives, Drobo, etc...interesting times. :)

How does the streaming work...does it adapt quality on the fly like Netflix?
Click to expand...

I'm assuming it's a progressive download, not actually streaming. Especially since you buy the HD version of the show for an extra dollar, it wouldn't make sense to offer it in Standard Definition because of your connection.
 
tootall said:
I love avoiding the hassle of going to the video store but the price differential is too steep. Here I can rent for 1$ a disk which usually includes 4 episodes, while on apple TV it costs 3,49 per episode, that makes it 14 times more expensive :mad:
Click to expand...

$3.49 is for an HD quality video, you can drop it to standard quality and it only costs $1.99 or $2.49 or so. Even on my 47" HDTV, standard quality looks fine.

Also, keep in mind that you're paying $1 to rent those four episodes; the ones you purchase from iTunes are yours to keep rewatching forever. Whether that's actually of any value to you is of course your own opinion.
 
Finally! The release of ATV2 saw the removal of the TV menu in Canada after we'd been waiting years to get it the first time. The justification was that Canada didn't get the rights to TV rentals and since the ATV2 doesn't have local storage, there was no use for the TV menu. With the death of TV rentals, it was a matter of time before the menu returned.

Nonetheless, prices are very much out of tune with the rest of the industry. You can rent unlimited tv shows on Netflix for $7.99 a month and many channels now offer their shows for free via their websites and many of them available on their apps able to be streamed to the AppleTV with AirPlay.

This has come too late for iTunes. I'd pay for a subscription to tv shows, but not $3 per episode.
 
tootall said:
I love avoiding the hassle of going to the video store but the price differential is too steep. Here I can rent for 1$ a disk which usually includes 4 episodes, while on apple TV it costs 3,49 per episode, that makes it 14 times more expensive :mad:
Click to expand...

From which city and company/service are you renting DVDs for 1$ each?

I also want to mention that the current iTunes prices for TV shows are way too high. Let me watch an episode once for 25 cents, otherwise it's pointless.

At 2.49$CAD per episode, four episodes per month, that means 10$CAD for each TV show you watch. If you watch more than three shows, it means it costs less to get basic cable. That's just insane.

Also, the selection of 99 cents movie rental used to be at least half-decent, but now it's pathetic, there's only about a dozen movie, eleven of which you probably never heard of.

Too bad the library of Netflix is so small in Canada. Still no Cheers, Seinfeld, Family Guy or even The Simpsons. They have Terminator 2 but not the first, third or fourth movie. Forget about recent movies and TV shows. The problem isn't the price of Netflix, it's the selection. I want to watch new episodes of Dr. Who, not those from the 1960's.
 
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Why would anyone ever want to PURCHASE a tv show? There is so much great stuff to watch out there, why would you ever watch a particular episode of anything more than twice in your life at the most? In the days before streaming it made sense to buy tv shows that you liked because there are lots of times during the day when broadcast cable tv doesn't have anything good on regardless of how many channels you have. But now in the high speed streaming era, I can watch something great at any time of day.
 
Nope. Non functional.

Sorry everyone, just tested this, and no the UK does not get iCloud TV episode streaming yet. You can't buy things on the AppleTV yet, and a test purchase on a desktop did not allow streaming.

I suspect the frontend menu for this was accidentally switched on for UK AppleTVs, but tv-show iCloud access is still switched off for UK accounts.

Just want to stress UK Apple TVs have not gained Show Purchasing and Streaming, the gui menu that would allow you to do so if it was really working has been switched on, but it only allows you access to preview slices of the videos.
 
We love the ATV but the price of renting and purchasing here in the UK is just too expensive. Corporate greed at its best. Renting SD films should be priced at 1 GBP and HD content 1.50. Thats a fair price for film rentals.

I know pricing is an ongoing debate here but if the pricing wasnt so high I wouldn't download by other methods, convert and stream from my Mac if you know what I mean!!!!!!! Thank god for the torrent sites!:p
 
Needs catch-up TV apps

This sounds good, but Apple would be doing everyone (including themselves) a big favour it they just added the main UK catch up TV apps that are already available on other iOS devices; iPlayer, 4OD and Channel 5 On Demand.

PS3 and soon Xbox, in addition to many PVR, Blu-Ray and internet enabled TV's already have these. They're hugely popular here. Apart from some niche devices, no-one offers a simple and cheap set top box that just adds the UK catch-up services to your TV here. If Apple added these they'd make the Apple TV so much more appealing.

I can't understand why this hasn't already happened. As i say, they're on other iOS devices, so it's not about taking revenue away from iTunes purchases.
 
frosty001 said:
This sounds good, but Apple would be doing everyone (including themselves) a big favour it they just added the main UK catch up TV apps that are already available on other iOS devices; iPlayer, 4OD and Channel 5 On Demand.

PS3 and soon Xbox, in addition to many PVR, Blu-Ray and internet enabled TV's already have these. They're hugely popular here. Apart from some niche devices, no-one offers a simple and cheap set top box that just adds the UK catch-up services to your TV here. If Apple added these they'd make the Apple TV so much more appealing.

I can't understand why this hasn't already happened. As i say, they're on other iOS devices, so it's not about taking revenue away from iTunes purchases.
Click to expand...

Apple can't just add whatever they feel like.
There has to be will on BOTH sides.

Apple didn't create any of the catchup apps that are available on other iOS devices. Third parties don't have the ability to create anything for the AppleTV.
 
chenks said:
Apple can't just add whatever they feel like.
There has to be will on BOTH sides.

Apple didn't create any of the catchup apps that are available on other iOS devices. Third parties don't have the ability to create anything for the AppleTV.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's true. I am only guessing, but as these catch-up services are on just about everything else, i can't imagine the will on the part of the TV channels is not here. They just can't access the device, which puts he ball back in Apple's court, imo.
 
motulist said:
Why would anyone ever want to PURCHASE a tv show? There is so much great stuff to watch out there, why would you ever watch a particular episode of anything more than twice in your life at the most? In the days before streaming it made sense to buy tv shows that you liked because there are lots of times during the day when broadcast cable tv doesn't have anything good on regardless of how many channels you have. But now in the high speed streaming era, I can watch something great at any time of day.
Click to expand...

I don't know about you but I like having the entire run of the X-file, Babylon 5, Stargate, Alien Nation, Farscape, Tourchwood, the Treks and a ********* of other 'series' in my library. Granted, I didn't have to get the Drama-type series but Sci-Fi is great for repeat viewing. Back when stuff first came out you could pay $50-$100 for a season, now with the market flooded, I see sales and resellers doing entire seasons for $10-20.
 
frosty001 said:
Yep, that's true. I am only guessing, but as these catch-up services are on just about everything else, i can't imagine the will on the part of the TV channels is not here. They just can't access the device, which puts he ball back in Apple's court, imo.
Click to expand...

But a lot of these catchup services on devices are just glorified web pages (especially on the PS3) thus not a lot of development is required. The user experience is crap to be honest.
 
frosty001 said:
This sounds good, but Apple would be doing everyone (including themselves) a big favour it they just added the main UK catch up TV apps that are already available on other iOS devices; iPlayer, 4OD and Channel 5 On Demand.

PS3 and soon Xbox, in addition to many PVR, Blu-Ray and internet enabled TV's already have these. They're hugely popular here. Apart from some niche devices, no-one offers a simple and cheap set top box that just adds the UK catch-up services to your TV here. If Apple added these they'd make the Apple TV so much more appealing.

I can't understand why this hasn't already happened. As i say, they're on other iOS devices, so it's not about taking revenue away from iTunes purchases.
Click to expand...

I would say its more the fat cat TV companies, why give us catch up tv on Apple Products when people will pay to buy the shows on itunes? Even with catch up apps, they control the adverts and revenue from those adverts...

Netflix launch in the UK in 2012 may change what the TV channels give us.. but totally agree... the UK apple TV is lacking something, saying that I have now cancelled my sky movies subscription and rent or buy movies from itunes now..
 
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