The Interview has been made available for streaming and purchase online ahead of its theatrical release Christmas Day. YouTube Movies, Google Play, Xbox Videos, and a dedicated website are all offering the controversial comedy for $5.99 to rent and $14.99 to own in HD.
Notably absent from the list of streaming providers is Apple, which refused the chance to make the movie available through iTunes. But that doesn’t mean you can’t stream “James Flacco” and Seth Rogen’s North Korean escapades on your Apple TV or iOS device.
The easiest way to do it is by purchasing it from YouTube Movies, because then you can stream it through the YouTube Apple TV and iOS apps. You must purchase the movie through the web first, and if you’ve never bought something from YouTube before, you’ll have to enter your credit card information.
Once it’s purchased and added to your Google/YouTube account, make sure you’re logged into your account in the YouTube app of your choice. From there it will show up under your list of purchases. The YouTube iOS app might be the easiest, because you can just send it to an Apple TV over AirPlay.
After fear that The Interview might never be shown, Sony announced that hundreds of theaters are set to screen the movie starting tomorrow. If you’re interested in going to see it, The Verge has a list of locations.
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
23 responses to “The Interview isn’t on iTunes, but it’s still easy to watch on Apple TV”
Did you guys actually try to watch it on the AppleTV? It doesn’t work. YouTube App won’t play it.
Yeah, this article is total shit. They obviously didn’t even try it before writing about it. It doesn’t work.
Thanks guys. Maybe you should try this before having us shell out $$$. AirPlay only sends the audio, mirroring is not allowed. And the native app (which is not Google’s) does not support it either.
Yeah, this doesn’t work and is completely wrong.
I got it to work first try. I mirrored it from my iPhone 5s to my Apple TV 3rd Gen. Make sure your software is up to date before posting bogus comments.
Do you have to have an Apple TV Gen 3 to get it to play? I can AirPlay content to my Apple TV, just not purchased content. I’ve tried the YouTube app, Google Play app – nothing will stream it to Apple TV.
I’m completely disgusted with Apple’s decision not to put this on iTunes. I’m rarely so disappointed in them. It smacks of cowardice. Perhaps there’s a good technical reason they couldn’t make it happen – if so, I’d like to hear them explain it.
iTunes Connect shutdown. They can’t put new content up because there’s no one around to set it up.
Then you call people in! For Christ’s sake…that’s the kind of excuse cowards use. Other services managed to get it up. So Apple was either lazy, incompetent or cowardly. There is no fourth option. And this is coming from a long-time Apple fan (feel free to check my comment history).
No, it’s the excuse of employer that respect’s its employees’ vacation time. The other services don’t have a pre-scheduled service downtime. Apple isn’t going to call people back in to make a movie available. This isn’t a security vulnerability that is going to affect people; it’s a dumb movie and a good decision by Apple to respect its employees. If people actually understood this, they would be praising Apple for not being an evil company that only cares about making money.
This isn’t about making money. It’s about standing up for principal. If they had offered double time pay (or even triple) they would have had more volunteers to do the required work than they needed. I think people would have come in for free.
You can’t honestly believe that this was about “respecting workers.” This was a business decision pure and simple because they didn’t want to get involved in the controversy and potentially open themselves up to hacking. They chose business over principal. And I expect better from them.
I’m not going to abandon the platform over this, but I’m also not going to forget it. It’s probably the first time Apple has truly and deeply disappointed me.
Believe what you want. It doesn’t change what the actual truth is: that they weren’t going to compromise their employees’ scheduled vacation time. This isn’t about “principal” at all; Sony already stood up for that by choosing to release the movie. It’s out now. Get over it.
It does NOT work. You canNOT AirPlay from inside YouTube. Only music goes to tv and video shows on iPhone. You cannot “mirror” via AirPlay either. Thank heaven I had a cheap old Roku box. Threw GooglePlay on it and it works great. Guess I need to rethink dropping 3 grand on a new iMac in the spring.
I would re-think dropping 3 grand on anything in the Spring.
I agree. THIS ARTICLE IS TOTAL SHIT! Did you TRY this before posting this shit?
Wow. This is a pretty funky response to this article. Did you even TRY to check the YouTube website before posting your really nasty response? Here’s the link you were too lazy to look for yourself. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6138789
I think you owe Alex an apology for your rude posting. Just saying. It’s Christmas and all…but I guess you can just drop your response and just go about your day. Good job. Merry Christmas.
I did. The instructions were total shit. Now it’s on iTunes so no need to give money to the evil empire.
OMG..I just watched it on my Apple TV. Some of you commenters should really check your stuff before beating the hell out of Alex. Jesus. Do ANY of you know how to search the YouTube website for how to watch the movie?? If you go to the YouTube App on Apple TV you can stream the entire move in HD from there. You will have to purchase the movie or rent it from the YouTube website. You can’t rent or purchase from the app. Once you purchase or rent it, you can open the app on Apple TV and go to My YouTube and scroll down to the “My Purchases” section and there it will be to stream in all it’s glory.
Side Note:
I think some of you owe Alex and the Cult of Mac team an apology. It’s Christmas for crying out loud and these guys pump out a brilliant website and articles year round. I personally cringed at some of the responses. (And you know who you are.) Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you get to enjoy the movie. And hope you guys at Cult of Mac have a fabulous holiday and get some much needed time off! Thanks!
No, I cannot watch the movie from my 2nd gen apple tv, just like the rest of these ppl. The article does not explain that, so they do owe an apology and youtube owes me $5.99, I also cannot watch it from my samsung smart tv, all other videos play except this 1… Its def. an issue and I’m pissed…
2nd Gen ATV’s are so 2013. You can’t get the latest ATV iOS, and when it comes to the article, CoM are correct when they say it can stream via the ATV. Its not there fault you haven’t got a ATV that can’t get the job done. The ATV 2 is over 4 yrs old. If you have a Smart TV use the Youtube App on that, because that works as well.
YouTube app on Samsung smart tv stuck in loading for this movie… All other videos play find. I did however watch it on my son’s 3rd gen Apple tv so money not wasted. But as for your reply not every1 has the financials to continually upgrade every little piece of over priced technology that becomes obsolete a year after its birth.
Thanks for your reply…
I agree. Perhaps stating the hardware and software requirements prior to posting this article would have cut down on the anger and frustration of those of us who wasted our time.
its called Plex guys, apple tv is for the birds