Which is what come about Tuesday whenShowtime added three of its programsto the iTunes Music Store roster .
This Apple - Showtime agreement is a significant one , and not just because it adds toKirstie Alley’sincome stream . Rather , I take it as a sign that the iTunes Music Store is attractive territory foranybroadcaster , whether they reside on the VHF portion of your telephone dial or in the upper three - digital reaches of your cable box .
Up until now , the broadcasters doing business with Apple either transmit their shows for free ( ABC and NBC ) or as part of some canonical cable television service package ( Disney Channel , USA , ESPN , and so off ) . The Showtime shows are the first to come from a internet that explicitly charges its viewers a monthly subscription fee . More significantly , the Showtime shows will appear on the iTunes Music Store in the same way as their free - TV counterparts — in other words , episodes ofSleeper Cellwill be useable for download the day after they air out on Showtime , just likeLostpops up at the shop after its ABC broadcast . That would seem to advise that my original concern — that pay - television channels would resist the lure of iTunes for reverence of cannibalizing their subsist interview — has been proved baseless .
Of course , as a romanticistic epoch poet once keep an eye on , “ Showtime isnotHBO . ” In the pay - cable world , Showtime is Art Garfunkel to HBO ’s Paul Simon — absolutely acceptable on its own merit , but not most as pop or accomplished as the other one . ( trace out this analogy to its logical conclusion , I guess that would make Cinemax a particularly lurid groupie . ) Since HBO has a ratifier theme and lettre de cachet that Showtime can only dream of , the latter web may be more unforced to do the kind of things that get its plan more in the public eye — include making them uncommitted for $ 1.99 each at a wildly pop online euphony storage . What cause sense for Showtime does not necessarily make mother wit for HBO .
Still , I ’m confident that HBO programing will bump its means into my iTunes shopping cart earlier rather than later . The web exact to be interested in such an arranging . Apple surely does n’t come along satisfied to roost on its award . And the momentum seems to prefer more programs from more broadcasters arriving at the iTunes Music Store , not less . I may just get thoseWireepisode downloads — andthat low cable handbill — I’ve been dream of yet .
