Half full: Movie rental downloads in iTS. Half empty: Only two of five major studios are on board — not enough to justify buying an Apple TV and dropping Netflix or Comcast.
Variety says Steve Jobs will announce Jan. 14 in his Macworld keynote that 20th Century Fox and Disney movie titles as pay-per-view downloads in iTS. Terms: $2-$5 for 24-hour viewing. Variety says Sony, Universal and Warner Brothers are not involved in the announcement.
PPV downloads have been a long time coming for Apple so this is definitely good news, but I’m only shrugs about the whole movies-over-the-Internet deal until there’s a critical mass of content available for my HDTV. I’ll grant that Apple TV is a great delivery system for such content, but I’m not ready to pay $299 for a set-top box that is less capable than Comcast On Demand and still needs an Internet connection.
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