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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?

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up vote 2 down vote accepted

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.

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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? –  Chris W. Rea Jan 2 '10 at 16:58
If you made a purchase on the AppleTV it should automatically sync back to iTunes as long as you have linked the two. –  ridogi Jan 3 '10 at 13:49
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. –  Chris W. Rea Jan 13 '10 at 21:43
Please do note things could have changed now with the introduction of iCloud and iTunes in the Cloud and stuff like that. –  Luke404 Jul 30 '12 at 9:04
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