Apple has silently ended its television show rental service on iTunes, saying late last week that users preferred to purchase shows rather than rent them. It was only one year ago when Apple persuaded television networks to give customers the ability to download television shows on a rental basis, but it just didn't kick off as users appeared willing to dole out a little extra to have the shows for all time. “iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows,” an Apple spokesman said Friday, confirming the take-down. The company has sold episodes of TV shows through iTunes for years for $1.99 to $2.99. The sales have been beneficial for Apple and for television networks, but have not had major effects on consumer behavior. The rental service, announced last fall, was an experiment of sorts to see if a lower price point and a short viewing window would entice consumers and encourage sales of the Apple TV product. But as Apple's statement indicated, rentals did not take off. The News Corporation, which owns the Fox network, said in a statement that after studying the results of the experiment, “it became clear that content ownership is a more attractive long-term value proposition both for iTunes customers and for our business.” News Corp. said it was working with Apple to make TV shows available within iTunes in the Cloud, a new online service that makes content more portable by securely storing it online. In its statement Friday, Apple promoted the new service, saying that it lets users “enjoy their programming whenever and however they choose.” BM
