Apple planning iTunes movie streaming?

 

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By Hani Megerisi

Posted on 3 Mar 2010 at 16:53

Apple is planning to allow iTunes users to store films they have purchased in the cloud, according to reports.

The move would effectively remove the need to reserve vast chunks of hard disk space for storing films locally, according to a report on CNet.

The studios are very concerned that they're going to get roped into somebody's proprietary platform

Apple is widely expected to offer a music streaming service following the acquisition of Lala in December, but these are the first reports of the same model being used for video.

The big sticking point could be the movie studios, who want non-Apple products to access the content as well. “Hollywood isn't interested in any walled gardens,” James McQuivey, a media analyst at Forrester Research, told CNet. "The studios are very concerned that they're going to get roped into somebody's proprietary platform. They want a world where consumers have a relationship with the content, and not with the device or the service.

“They are in a position to force Apple to go along and make sure that content bought [via] iTunes will play on a Nokia phone. That is very un-Apple-like."