Macworld2008: Apple launches iTunes Movies Rentals

Films from every major Hollywood studio available in the US today

15 January 2008 17:51 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

During his keynote speech at the Moscone Centre in San Francisco for the opening of Macworld2008, Steve Jobs revealed that 20 million songs had been sold via iTunes on Christmas day, breaking a new one day record for the already record breaking company.

125 million TV shows and 7 million films have also been bought via the online service, revealed Jobs, but he stated, there was a "better way to deliver movies" that he was to unveil today.

Jobs then announced the expected "iTunes Movie Rentals" service - that he said "makes sense as you only want to watch a movie once, maybe twice" and it works out as less expensive and does not take up space on hard drive.

Announcing that the service would be live straight away, and that there would be 1000 films available by end of February Jobs went on to detail the timescale for the rentals.

The films - available from all major Hollywood studios - will be available 30 days after the films's DVD release.

People who rent a film will be able to watch the movies across all platforms - Macs, PCs, all current gen iPods, and the iPhone.

People can chose to start to watch the film instantly, on their computer for example - they will start in less then 30 seconds apparently - and then chose to continue watching on their iPhones or iPods.

After renting via iTunes, customers will have 30 days to start watching, then 24 hours to watch it as many times as they want.

Costs will be $2.99 for a library title, $3.99 for a new release and $4.99 for a high definition quality title, of which 100 will be available.

The service will only be available in the States with a launch promised for elsewhere in the world "later this year".