As first reported in October, Apple will discontinue the standalone iTunes Movies and iTunes TV Shows apps on the Apple TV box, starting with tvOS 17.2 The warning message seen above has started appearing in the release candidate version of tvOS 17.2 beta, released yesterday.
Apple directs users to the TV app instead to manage their purchases, and buy and rent from the store. At least as far as Apple’s video content is concerned, the iTunes brand is on the way out.
Apple has updated the TV app in 17.2 in preparation of the migration away from the standalone iTunes videos app, bringing across some functionality that was previously missing in TV. That includes things like filtering by genre in purchased tab, and the inclusion of box sets in the store listings. The TV app also features a new sidebar design in this update, which includes a dedicated store and purchases tab for quick navigation.
On the tvOS 17.2 release candidate, the home screen tiles for iTunes Movies and TV Shows remain. Opening either of them simply displays a landing page message that directs users to the store and purchases tabs in the TV app. Apple can hide apps from the Apple TV home screen with a silent backend change, so in time the redundant home screen icons will likely also disappear.
At least as of time of publishing, the iTunes Store app on iPhone and iPad is still functional as far as movie and TV show purchasing is concerned. However, it is possible that Apple migrates users away from that app, to TV, too.
Assuming Apple finds no issues with the release candidate seed, tvOS 17.2 will likely be released to the general public for all users sometime next week, just before the holidays.
