Neither the TV networks nor consumers are likely to complain after Apple today dropped the option of renting network TV show episodes. Apple had to fight hard to get the networks on board with the concept last year, but consumers proved cool to the 99-cent rentals. Apple has recently given customers the ability to watch shows they purchased via iTunes any time they want, on any Apple device, by streaming it from its “iTunes in the Cloud” service. “iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows,” said Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr. Fox agreed that single-episode rentals were a non-starter in its own statement: ”After carefully considering the results of the rental trial, it became clear that content ownership is a more attractive long-term value proposition both for iTunes customers and for our business. To further enhance the value of ownership, we are working with Apple to make content available within their new cloud-based service.”