iTunes Bends Pricing For HBO

What do Sex and the City, Sopranos and Rome have in common? They can all be downloaded now on iTunes! Apple has closed a deal with HBO that has revolutionized its pricing model. Content providers everywhere are saying: It’s about time!

Apple has managed to get most of the major television and movie studios on board iTunes, making it one of the largest video download services online. The exception has been longtime iTunes holdout NBC because Apple and NBC haven’t been able to see eye-to-eye over pricing.

But Apple’s consistent pricing model was allowed to shift to bring in HBO. Apple announced Tuesday that iTunes made the network of the Sopranos "an offer it couldn’t refuse". Now iTunes carries all your favorite HBO titles available for download for the first time to non-HBO subscribers.

The introduction of HBO titles to iTunes required a shift from Apple’s traditional pricing model. Episodes of Sex and the City, The Wire and Flight of the Conchords will cost the standard TV show price of $1.99. But now a premium title category has been created for shows like Sopranos, Deadwood and Rome that will cost iTunes users $2.99 per episode.

Apple and HBO hope the shows availability on iTunes will get a lift from the current hype surrounding the Sex and the City movie coming May 30th to theaters.

The shift in pricing has been a major sticking point between Apple and some content providers. Apple struggles to keep consistent pricing while the content providers have their own idea of their content’s value.

According to analysts from at least one tech consulting firm, the shift in pricing could bring about further significant changes in online availability. Perhaps a time is coming when movies will be available for download at the same time they’re at the theater, but only at a significant price increase.