Apple's iTunes Music Store is increasingly inaccurately named, as more networks and more television shows are added to the catalogue. Apple claims more than 150 shows are now available. Today, the new shows are from Warner Brothers.
Warner Bros is now offering Babylon 5 Season One, with 23 episodes. The cost is $39.99 for the entire season. It was a five-season science fiction show, and should sell well at a price slightly cheaper than the currently-available DVDs, while lacking the DVD extras.
They've also released Friends Season One, with 24 episodes. The entire season is available for $27.99, which is a pretty steep discount that, again, makes the price online slightly cheaper than the DVDs. The DVDs of most of the other nine seasons ended up cheaper, so it will be interesting to see how Apple and Warner Brothers price them on iTunes.
The Flintstones ran for six seasons, and the first of those is available with 28 episodes for $27.99.
The Jetsons first season (of three) continues the pricing trend, with 24 episodes for $27.99. It seems clear the pricing of these shows is based not at all on the number of episodes, but on the price of the equivalent DVD.
In addition to those four shows, the pilot for Aquaman (also known as Mercy Reef) is available. The show was never picked up by the CW network. Also, WB has released some "Best Of" episodes for MADtv, featuring some of the best skits from seasons eight, nine, and ten.
All episodes are available individually for $1.99, just like all other shows on iTunes.
Warner Brothers is the sixth major content provider to sign up with iTunes, joining ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and Viacom. WB has a catalog of more than 40,000 television titles and 14,000 animation properties, though it remains to be seen how many of these will be released on iTunes, and when.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
I originally taped Babylon 5 when it aired, commercials and all, and ended up with quite a few video tapes. I recently gave the boxes to one of my brothers, who watched them all and informed me that I missed three episodes. Once WB/Apple finally get around to releasing season five, I can tell him how to find those missing episodes!