Apple rolls out iTunes Movies in the Cloud to 35 more countries

Apple announced a further rollout of iTunes in the Cloud yesterday, adding iCloud support for films and TV series sold through its iTunes store in another 35 countries.

The service ensures that purchases made in iTunes from any device are automatically available for download elsewhere -- any iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, or Apple TV connected to your Apple account. iTunes in the Cloud is now available in most of the EU, Latin American and Asia-Pacific markets in addition to the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Macrumors reports that only a small fraction of purchased movies are currently shown as eligible for re-download through iTunes in the Cloud for some users in the United Kingdom, but Apple indicates that "most" content should be included in the program.

Apple's iTunes Match service also expanded yesterday and is now available in Hungary and Poland for the same €24.99 annual fee as other EU countries. Launched in the US last November, the service scans your entire music library and compares it against some 20 million songs in Apple's database. Those that are matched -- even the ones that have been purchased on other stores, manually ripped from CDs, or downloaded illegally -- will become available for download on your devices as if you've purchased them via iTunes. The rest will be uploaded and low quality songs will be upgraded to 256kbps AAC files.

Curiously, the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden were once again left our from the 60-odd countries with access to use the iTunes Match service. While no official reason has been given some believe complications with the country’s music ownership rights are to blame.