Monday, December 31,2007 @ 10:40am
Fox, Disney confirmed as iTunes rental partners?
More details of the highly-anticipated iTunes rental service have been leaked, according to Variety. The movie trade magazine cites "studio sources" as saying that Fox and Disney are indeed confirmed as partners, and will make some sort of appearance during the January 14th Macworld keynote by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The two may also be joined by other distributors, such as MGM, Lionsgate and Paramount, which like Fox and Disney already sell permanent downloads on the iTunes Store.
Pricing is still a matter of speculation, but it is suggested that videos will cost between $2 to $5 to rent for 24 hours of viewing, with prices tending towards the lower end of the spectrum in order to lure people in from rival rental services such as Netflix or Amazon's Unbox. Video represents only 19 percent of the business Apple does through the iTunes Store, and the lack of rentals may be one of the problems affecting the Apple TV, which has so far sold far fewer units than products like the iPod or the iPhone.