It finally happened.. after the MacWorld launch of movie rentals in the US, Apple has finally decided to flip the big switch in the sky and allow the good citizens of the United Kingdom the joys of Apple movie rentals.

Up until this point the Apple TV has been a gimmick in the UK. Sure, it was good if you’d spent hundreds of hours converting DVDs to the iTunes format (H.264, MPEG4) or you were able to hack your Apple TV (shhh don’t tell Steve!) but it had no real “must have” factor about it.

A press release from Apple goes on to state just why you’ll want to drop some money for the ATV now though..

“We’re kicking off movies on the iTunes Store in the UK with over 700 films for purchase and rent,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We think customers in the UK are going to love being able to enjoy their favorite movies on their iPod, iPhone or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.

Now, I love the theory behind the Apple TV.. you can now order movies sans computers, but they’ve overlooked 2 main points in my opinion. 1) Price, 2) Broadband Speed.

For movie rentals, customers have up to 30 days to start watching it, and once a movie has been started customers have 48 hours to finish it (It’s still 24hrs in the US).
iTunes movies are available at £6.99 for library title purchases and £10.99 for new releases. iTunes movie rentals are £2.49 for library title rentals and £3.49 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at one pound more.

You can buy most DVDs online for <£10.99, and there’s an unlimited library, oh, and the average broadband speed in the UK is appauling, so expect to wait 30 minutes before starting that “Almost-technically-HD-but isn’t-quite” copy of Die Hard 4. This just sucks. £7.99 would have been a better price.

I know this seems like a negative review, it’s just that I wanted to get the Apple TV so much when it launched across the pond, but damn, for those prices it would be quicker to drive to the nearest supermarket, pickup the film, get back, put some food on AND still have time before the movie has cached enough to actually watch.

Sorry Steve, it’s a great idea.. I’m just too busy being kicked in the balls by BT.