Apple users should soon get access to TV shows for 99 cents. Reportedly, the Cupertino-based company is currently in talks with News Corp. and aims to bring a TV renting service to iTunes users. Apple is also in discussions with various other media companies, aiming to strike similar deals. The viewers will most likely be able to rent programs from News Corp’s Fox for a period of 48 hours, Bloomberg reports. Several sources, who preferred to remain anonymous, mentioned that these discussions of Apple aren’t public. NBC Universal as well as Walt Disney Co. (where Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO is a board member as well as the largest shareholder) are also said to be close to joining the project.
Many companies are working on bringing TV services to mobile users. Through these deals Apple is currently working on, the company’s users would be able to watch some of the most appreciated TV shows on their iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch music players. With a little effort iTunes could become a big retailer of TV shows and video on top on top of providing a large number of mobile applications and music.
According to one of the sources, users of the Apple rental service will get new episodes within 24 hours of their air dates. The episodes will also be commercial-free (well, if you’re
paying for them, they might as well be commercial-free, right? That seems like a reasonable deal to me).
Moreover, Apple is also preparing to hold an event in San Francisco on September the 7th which is about two weeks before the start of the new prime-time TV Season. The event should serve as an occasion to launch the new service as well as an updated line of entertainment products. We already know what one of the products will be, Apple’s new iPod Touch with ahigh resolution screen (which will most likely include a front-facing camera and FaceTime support). Apple will also launch a $99 version of the Apple TV set-top box, according to one of the sources. The new Apple TV will have a somewhat smaller hard drive than the earlier version (which has been around for about three years). It will also allow people to stream content from iTunes.
A large number of rumors have been circulating lately. Photos of parts which supposedly belong to the new iPod Touch were displayed on various sites. On top of that Apple made a habit out of holding a September event to release new products (generally new generation iPods). There is absolutely no doubt that the September 7 event will take place and that it will be the perfect occasion for the release of some shiny new products. The only thing that remains a mystery is which of Apple’s rumored product will finally become available. I guess we’ll find out in less than two weeks, won’t we?
