HBO Shows Start Selling On iTunes With Increased Prices

Apple and HBO have announced that they are to begin selling shows such as “Sex and the City” and “The Sopranos” via iTunes ; with HBO having done what NBC couldn’t and convinced Apple to sell certain shows for $2.99, a buck more expensive than Apple’s preferred standard price point.

Among the new offerings on iTunes are Emmy Award-winning shows "The Sopranos," "Sex and the City," "Deadwood" and "Rome," as well as the critically acclaimed hits "Flight of the Conchords" and "The Wire."

HBO shows purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store can be viewed on a Mac or PC, iPod nano with video, iPod classic, iPod touch, fifth generation iPod, iPhone or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV. "Sex and the City," "The Wire" and "Flight of the Conchords" are priced at $1.99 per episode, and "The Sopranos," "Deadwood" and "Rome" are priced at $2.99 per episode.

Previously NBC had tried to convince Apple to play with price points above $1.99, which is Apple’s preferred standard price for iTunes TV shows (the same as $0.99 is for a song and $9.99 is for an album.) They had to pull out of distributing content with iTunes thanks to the failure to reach an agreement.

Now however Apple is signalling that it is willing to sell TV shows at more than $1.99 an episode, and with various contracts for the likes of CBS coming up for renewal, we can expect to see some changes in the prices on offer for TV shows on iTunes.