Is Hollywood experimenting with more first day rentals online?

I’m becoming addicted to renting movies online. They’re decently priced, and so fast; it beats the experience of going to a physical video store hands down. Except for one little thing: selection. But is that about to change?

Specifically, what I’m talking about are movies just released on traditional formats like DVD. Typically, the movie studios have allowed users of the online movie services like iTunes and Amazon On Demand to buy these movies the day they come out, but have held them back from being rented online on the same services until they have been out for a few weeks. This is silly, since you can rent them from day one at a brick and mortar store like Blockbuster. But clearly Hollywood is being cautious about its product.

But this week I noticed something for the first time: A solid selection of new release rentals on both iTunes and Amazon On Demand. While there have always been a few select movies that are available to rent the day they come out, it’s usually the exception to the rule and it’s typically been with 20th Century Fox movies. But right now I’m seeing two movies from other studios that came out today available to rent: Pride & Glory and RocknRolla. Both are technically Warner Brothers films, Pride & Glory was made by New Line which is a division of Warner.

The week’s other new big release, Lakeview Terrace, is only available for purchase. It is a Sony Pictures film.

The movie studios have been slowly moving in the direction of online distribution for new-to-DVD movies. Back in May of last year, a group of them finally allowed services like iTunes to get new releases in the store the same day they are available on DVD. But again, that was to buy; renting is key for a lot of people because, simply put, a lot of movies aren’t worth buying.

I sincerely hope that more of the studios are looking into renting movies online the day of their release. Holding them back from rental is just silly and annoys users — why be allowed to buy but not rent it for a set period of time? You are paying for both after all.

It will happen sooner or later, then I’ll have to move on to complaining about a lack of a rent-to-own system. That is, if you rent a movie on a service like iTunes, and want to buy it, you should be able to do so for the price minus the cost of the rental. Again, it just makes sense.