After months of rumors and tantalizing hints, iTunes movie rentals finally seem poised for a big debut at this January's MacWorld Expo. According to the Financial Times, Apple and News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox have inked a new deal that will allow iTunes users to rent future DVD releases from the studio for a limited amount of time. No further details about the rental window or pricing were given.
It's also unclear whether this arrangement is tied to the rumored movie price hike we reported on earlier this month. If you recall, Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield said that Apple had agreed to raise the average selling price of iTunes movies by $5 in order to both attract and appease uneasy studios (like 20th Century Fox) and to fortify its movie offerings. While the concession was supposedly made primarily to attract 20th Century Fox, Greenfield stopped short of linking the deal to future movie rentals through iTunes.
In addition to rolling out its new video-on-demand service, Apple is also planning to extend its own flavor of DRM, FairPlay, to other content. According to the Financial Times, as part of the new arrangement 20th Century Fox will include a digital file protected by FairPlay in future DVD releases. This will allow buyers to transfer film content from the disc to a computer and iPod without the need for additional ripping software.
If true, it's certainly an interesting move by 20th Century Fox. The studio made an ill-conceived attempt to boost the portability of its content earlier in the year when it released a special DVD bundle of Live Free or Die Hard with its own Digital Copy technology. In theory, that embedded file was supposed to do the same thing DVDs with FairPlay will do: let users load the movie onto their laptops and video-capable music players. Turns out, the digital copy didn't work with Macs or iPods -- a slight obstacle to portability considering how many iPod users are out there. For now, it's unclear whether the deal with Apple will supplant Fox's own DRM or simply be an addition.
Apple is currently thought to be in similar talks with other major studios about offering new releases (for rental and purchase) via iTunes. Those studio include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount and Warner Bros. Whether any of those deals will be finalized before MacWorld remains to be seen, however. Currently, Walt Disney is the only studio selling its new releases on iTunes. Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate offer a handful of their older movie titles through the store.
Photo: Flickr/whurleyvision
[Via Financial Times]
