Apple stops renting TV shows in iTunes, could be working on a new kind of video service

Apple has pulled the plug on TV episode rentals via iTunes, abruptly leaving customers with only the option of purchasing per episode — good thing you can watch those on your Apple TV streamed from the cloud — or a Season Pass where available. AllThingsD has a quote from spokesman Tom Neumayr indicating this was in response to customers that “overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows.” Making the timing of the move particularly curious are once-again renewed rumors of an Apple HDTV and a WSJ profile of new CEO Tim Cook that indicates the company is “working on new technology to deliver video to televisions, and has been discussing whether to try to launch a subscription TV service.” Like Google , any move depends on its success in negotiating a new delivery model from the networks, who so far have been averse to anything that threatens their existing relationship with pay-TV providers. It appears 99-cent rentals didn’t move the needle, so we’ll wait and see what the folks from Cupertino have up their sleeve next. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Apple stops renting TV shows in iTunes, could be working on a new kind of video service originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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