August 14th, 2008 2:20 pm

Movies Premiere on iTunes Australia

Apple Australia today launched its international movie download catalogue on iTunes Australia. With a reported catalogue of over 700 titles, from new releases like Jumper, to library titles such as Once Upon a Time in the West.

Rentals are available from $3.99 for library titles and $5.99 for new releases. HD rentals are just $1 more on AppleTV. Movie purchases are available from $9.99/$12.99 for library titles and from $17.99/$24.99 for new releases.

This is a huge step forward in legalising movie downloads in Australia. Other vendors such as Bigpond Movies have tried similar services in Australia, but with the lack of hardware support for playback on iPods and on your tv, it hasn’t taken off quite as expected.

With Apple reporting a 50% increase in market share in Australia, and its product line including devices such as AppleTV, which allows for downloads to be purchased and rented directly from your television set, the iTunes Store movie service is expected to have a much greater uptake than previous vendors.

Internet provider iiNet includes the iTunes Store as part of its quota freezone, which means movie downloads wont eat into monthly download quotas.

Movies are available today, from 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, MGM, Sony Pictures and Lionsgate.