AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

The Los Angeles Times

The online entertainment store reels in one of the last holdouts among major channels, agreeing to a rare pricing concession to land hit shows like “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City” and “The Wire.”

Apple Inc. has scooped up Time Warner Inc.’s HBO to feed television shows to its online iTunes store, reeling in one of the last holdouts among major channels and agreeing to a rare pricing concession to land hit shows like “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City” and “The Wire.”

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said HBO programming began appearing on iTunes today and the shows cost either $1.99 or $2.99 per episode, making HBO the only channel allowed to charge above the standard $1.99 for their episodes on iTunes.

Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, said the higher prices for some of HBO’s shows — in particular “Deadwood,” “Rome” and “The Sopranos” — are still cheaper than buying the DVD sets of the full seasons of those shows, which translates into prices two or three times higher per episode.

“I don’t think it’s a shift in strategy — I view this as an extension of the strategy we’ve had,” Cue said in an interview.

HBO is also trying out a service of its own that allows cable customers with HBO subscriptions and high-speed Internet connections to download shows and movies and play them on personal computers, but it’s not widely available.

Apple splits the revenues from iTunes sales with content providers, with most of the money going back to the movie studios, television channels and record labels whose work is sold through the Web site.

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