Plex Is Breaking Into Movie Rentals
Plex is quickly trying to become a one-stop shop for all your media . This has long been a great way to catalog and broadcast ripped copies of your personal media collection. The addition of the Universal Watchlist feature has turned it into a central place to connect all the different streaming services. And now Plex is going after media not available on streaming services by allowing users to rent movies .
Plex is starting small, offering a catalog of about 1,000 movies, including several notable releases from last year. You’ll find games like Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning , Wonka, Paw Patrol: Mighty Movie, Barbie, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and many more available now, along with old favorites.
Plex isn’t reinventing the wheel here, offering a model that mirrors digital rentals on other platforms like Prime Video or Redbox. Once you start watching a movie, you have 48 hours to finish it before it disappears from your library. The prices are also similar; most titles will cost you between $3.99 and $5.99, depending on the movie.
According to Plex, the big benefit is that the movie you rent on Plex can be played on any platform you choose, since the Plex app is literally available everywhere. Plex also promises that the movie rental process will be possible on almost every platform, including smart TVs, although if the platform isn’t supported, you can always open the Plex web app to do so. Full details are outlined in their support article . Movie rentals are currently only available to Plex users in the US market.
It’s also important to note a feature that Plex doesn’t implement: the ability to buy movies directly. In an interview with TechCrunch, Plex CEO Keith Valory explained: “We’re looking at using the purchase because it creates some additional challenges – now you have to store this locker for people for a long time, and does that really make sense?” [for us]?”
It’s clear that Plex isn’t prepared to build out the infrastructure to sell and store media in the long term, leading to complex licensing issues. Likewise, Plex doesn’t rent TV shows based on user reviews.