Apple has removed the option to buy and rent movies from the Apple TV app on Android TV and Google TV; users can still access their iTunes library
Apple has removed to option to buy and rent movies from the Apple TV app (iTunes) on Android TV and Google TV with the latest app update.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s Android TV and Google TV app had operated as both a viewing endpoint for iTunes libraries and a transaction surface. Related coverage reports that Apple had previously been exempt from Google’s in-app-purchase cut before the purchase and rental controls disappeared.
The change arrives alongside Google’s own effort to concentrate video commerce in Google TV: it planned to move Movies & TV purchases out of the Play Store and direct users to the Google TV app.
First-order effects
- Apple TV users on Android TV and Google TV can continue watching titles already in their iTunes libraries, but can no longer initiate movie purchases or rentals in the app.
- Apple loses a direct transactional storefront on Google’s TV platforms while preserving the app as an access point for its existing customers.
Second-order effects
- Google TV gains a clearer path to become Google’s designated video-commerce destination as Apple’s app no longer offers a competing checkout on those devices.
- Customers seeking new rentals or purchases must separate library access from buying, increasing the importance of whichever storefront Google directs them to use.
Third-order effects
- The paired Apple and Google changes point toward cross-platform media apps retaining library access while platform owners consolidate new commerce inside their own storefronts.
- If that model persists, digital-media competition on connected TVs will hinge less on who can display a library and more on who controls the purchase flow.
The trend: Connected-TV platforms are separating cross-platform library access from platform-controlled media transactions.