If I buy a TV show or movie with AppleTV or iTunes, can I download it again later if I delete it?

Question

If I buy a TV show or movie with AppleTV or iTunes, can I download it again later if I delete it?

I'm not very well-versed with how iTunes works, especially in conjunction with the AppleTV. I do remember the few times I purchased a DRM-protected song from my computer that when I re-installed my computer, iTunes offered to download my purchased songs again. Does the same thing happen with TV shows or movies that I purchase?

In particular, I'm using an AppleTV with limited storage (160GB) and buying the shows directly from the AppleTV. I can foresee that in the future we will fill up the space and need to delete something, especially with HD content being so large. If I delete something purchased, is there a way to get it back later?

Solution

In short, not easily but it is possible.

There have been numerous blog postings about people being able to re-download their purchases but it's not something that can be done automatically. You will have to call/contact Apple and get some sort of authorization to do it.

My recommendation is to back your purchases up on another computer and not have to worry about such things.

Comments

[Chris W. Rea]

Thanks. +1. Hmm... if I already purchased a show directly with the AppleTV, is there a way to get a copy onto a computer with iTunes that's connected to the same iTunes Store account?

[ridogi]

If you made a purchase on the AppleTV it should automatically sync back to iTunes as long as you have linked the two.

[Chris W. Rea]

Confirmed - I've since tied the AppleTV to a computer running iTunes, and the movie I downloaded then synced to iTunes. I had to authorize that computer in order to enable playback of the synced content, but that's no surprise.

[Luke404]

Please do note things could have changed now with the introduction of iCloud and iTunes in the Cloud and stuff like that.