Apple added TV shows to the content that can be viewed and redownloaded through your iTunes purchase history on Monday. TV shows are now one of four types of iTunes content that can be downloaded to your Macs, PCs, and iOS devices, including music, apps, books, and now TV shows.
TV Shows Now Available Through Purchased History
The feature utilizes Apple’s iCloud service, which was announced on June 6th, 2011. iCloud is a free service from Apple that is intended to allow users complete access to much of their data, including iTunes content, from anywhere on any iTunes-enabled device (with some exceptions — for instance, iBooks books can only be viewed on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad).
Apple first unveiled the ability to (re)download purchased apps, music, and books through iCloud, which is accessible through the “Purchased” tab or page in iTunes on your Mac (as seen in the image below), iOS device, or WIndows PC. Users will now find “TV Shows” under the Purchased link (as seen in the figure above), where they can see everything they have purchased, along with any of that content that hasn’t been downloaded to that local device.
“Purchased” History Can Be Found in ITunes Under Quick Links
The feature was added on the server side by Apple, and didn’t require an update to the iTunes client. In a related story, The Mac Observer reported earlier on Monday that Apple has updated the current generation of Apple TV devices to allow the purchasing and viewing of TV shows through the Apple TV — previously it had been limited to streaming rented shows.