Image via MacRumors
Apple has stopped offering TV show rentals through iTunes today, Apple has confirmed to AllThingsD. Now that TV show rentals – which Apple heavily pushed for prior to the launch of the second-generation Apple TV – are missing, users can only purchase a full episodes. The advantage of full episodes of the $0.99 rentals is the ability to re-watch the episode an unlimited amount of times, for just a dollar more than the formally existing rental price.
Since these $0.99 TV show rentals were a cornerstone feature alongside the current Apple TV model, Apple has a solution. In fact, Apple’s solution came on the first day of August: a cloud-based storage locker for TV episodes. Now, a user can purchase full TV episodes from their little black box, stream the episodes to their Apple TV for the initial viewing, and stream them again from the cloud for every future stream.
As far back as September of last year, Warner Brothers’ CEO was skeptical of the show rental system from Apple:
