Back in January, Steve Jobs introduced film rentals in the US. Some people swooned. Other people figured out that if you could figure out the software to rent films, you could use that same system to rent music. But no matter on the latter. We were promised films for rent in the UK, but no word on when it would happen.
Now, it's happened:
movies from major film studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate UK are now available on the iTunes® Store in the UK
Well, that's nice. You'll be able to get films such as I Am Legend (passable; Charlton Heston's version, The Omega Man, was just as good, or bad. The picture link goes to Philip French's review.). Anyway:
The iTunes Store in the UK features over 700 films available for rent or purchase, with titles available for purchase on the same day as their DVD release
700? That's nearly as many as your average Blockbuster. And how much do they cost?
iTunes movies are available at £6.99 for library title purchases and £10.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are £2.49 for library title rentals and £3.49 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just one pound more.
How does that compare to the US? Over there, you'll find
iTunes Movie Rentals are priced at $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are just one dollar more with library titles at $3.99 and new releases at $4.99.
Is it just me, or is this pricing differential just completely taking the piss? Let's generously assume that Apple is not gouging us on the price here, and that it's doing its pricing based on wholesale pricing by the (generally, US-based) studios. How can they explain the fact that new releases cost the equivalent of $7 - where in the US they sell for $4. That's on a product that's already been made, which needs no translation (unlike, say, software), where making new copies costs nothing. For library rental, the comparison is $5 in the UK vs $3.
Sorry, but this continuing differential in pricing - which has been pretty much ironed out for hardware (once you allow for 17.5% VAT in the UK) and is falling for Apple's software - still lingers in media (iTunes tracks at 79p - or $1.60 - vs 99c anyone?). It's bad, and if I needed to point to anything that comprises a barrier to a wholehearted acceptance of the Brave New Digital World, this would certainly be a big part of it. (DRM being the other part, but mostly Apple's keeps out of the way. Pricing doesn't.)
