By Kenneth Li
Episodes of some HBO shows are likely to be sold at the
standard price of $1.99 per episode or higher, these sources
said, marking the first time Apple has agreed to selling
television shows at different prices in the United States.
Although some global iTunes stores, including Japan,
already sell songs at different prices, Apple has resisted
offering music or television shows at different prices for the
sake of simplicity for consumers.
The deal could be announced as early as tomorrow, one of
the sources said.
But studio and music company executives have pushed for
variable pricing, such as the ability to sell some content at
lower prices and new releases at higher prices, which they
believe would improve sales from its older catalogs.
Apple's pricing structure also was part of the reason why
General Electric's NBC Universal decided last year to pull its
shows from iTunes.
Since then, NBC has made some shows available for streaming
on Apple's iPhone as well made some available for sale on
iTunes's U.K. store.
HBO plans to make some of the shows available on iTunes
when its sells them on DVD, after the initial airing of the
entire season, one source said, preserving its relationship
with subscribers and cable operators who pay HBO a fee for
every new subscriber.
Other broadcast and cable networks make their shows
available as early as the next day after broadcast.
At launch, HBO will likely offer mostly shows from its
archives, one source said.
HBO declined comment. An Apple representative was not
immediately reachable.
The news was first reported by Portfolio.
(Reporting by Kenneth Li; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and
Carol Bishopric)
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