Apple today quietly pulled the plug on TV rentals via iTunes, Apple TV, and other devices, citing customer demand for purchases as the prime motivator. Company spokesman Tom Neumayr told us that “iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows,” adding that “iTunes in the Cloud lets customers download and watch their past TV purchases from their iOS devices, Apple TV, and Mac or PC, allowing them to enjoy their programming whenever and however they choose.”

This shouldn’t come as a huge shock. The company recently flipped the switch on streaming purchases for its relatively new second generation Apple TV, thus opening a far larger pool of content to choose from. It doesn’t seem that this decision is in any way related to that Wall Street Journal mention yesterday of a ‘new technology’ for getting content to end-users on their TVs. However, sources have indicated to us that talks are ongoing at the company in regards to subscription deals with television content-distributors.

Via [ThisismyNext]