Some Disney and Pixar movies have apparently been pulled from the iTunes Store in the US and UK. At least one report sees an Apple TV user having purchased movies removed from his device without a refund.
Two movies disappeared from my Apple TV yesterday (Mater’s Tall Tales and The Lion King). I called Apple and they told me that Disney has removed them from the iTunes store. They are no longer available for viewing on my Apple TV. There was no warning, no notice and no refund. According to Apple, all digital content belongs to the content provider.
While both movies show up on the web, clicking the “View in iTunes” button brings up a message as seen in the screenshot above.
While it seems unlikely that Disney would pull content from Apple’s iTunes Store, given the close relationship between the two companies, neither company has commented on the situation.
(UPDATE – 10-24-13) – It appears the issue could be over licensing, as a search over on Amazon.com for these titles returns a notice that they are unavailable “due to our licensing agreements.”
A Disney spokesperson did tell AppAdvice that Disney plans to work with Apple to ensure that users who previously purchased The Lion King and other removed content will be able to continue to download their purchases.
