Movies now online in 42 of 56 recent iTunes Store launches
updated 11:12 am EST, Wed December 12, 2012
Some countries missing rentals or HD
Movie sales have gone live in 42 out of the 56 countries that recently gained access to the iTunes Store, notes AppleInsider. Initially, only Russia, Turkey, India, and Indonesia were announced as having video access. Even now movie access is inconsistent, with only some countries also having options for rentals and/or HD quality. Many storefronts reportedly carry nothing beyond movies from Disney, Sony, and their subsidiaries.
New European regions for movies include Belarus, Moldova, and the Ukraine. In Asia and the Pacific, Micronesia, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan have joined up. The bulk of new countries are located in Africa and the Middle East: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Botswana, Cape Verde, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Swaziland, the United Arab Emirates, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. In South America and the Caribbean, the list has expanded to Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago.
For Apple movies represent one of the trickiest content categories to deploy, since film distribution rights are often even more complicated than the ones for music. Books are nominally available in every country with an App Store, but in practice only some of them have titles other than public domain offerings.
