HBO planning to sell "Sex and the City" on iTunes

HBO, the premium television programming subsidiary of media major Time Warner, is reportedly planning to sell some of its shows on iTunes, Apple Inc.'s popular online music store.

People familiar with the matter say that HBO and Apple are close to announcing a deal to make some episodes of HBO shows available for download on iTunes service. The sources also said that HBO may announce the deal as early as Tuesday.

HBO, the leading premium cable channel, may add its popular shows like ’The Sopranos’, ‘Sex and the City’ or ‘The Wire’ to the ITunes service.

Surprisingly, Apple will sell the shows at a price higher than the $1.99 that it now charges for all current television episodes, meaning it will change its traditional policy of selling all the shows at the same price. The move may prompt other media companies to push to change their digital download prices.

In the beginning of this month, the Cupertino, California- based Apple announced a video content deal with Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studio, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios to make movies available for iTunes download the same day and date they are released on DVD at two price points: $14.99 for new releases and $9.99 for older films.

According to Michael Gartenberg, an analyst for JupiterResearch, Apple’s derived its strict pricing standards from a desire to create a simple consumer experience. “Four or five years ago, when this was a relatively new concept, the idea of keeping prices uniform really helped jump-start the market for online content,” Mr. Gartenberg said. “It’s probably not as important anymore, because it’s not as new anymore.”

Apple’s music store features the world's largest catalog with more than six million songs, 350 television shows and over 400 movies. The iTunes Store has sold 100 million TV shows and over 2 million movies, making it the world's most popular online music, TV and movie store.

Movies purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store can be viewed on a computer, fifth generation iPod and, soon on Apple TV. Most of them are priced at US$9.99 each. Movies downloaded from the iTunes Store are downloaded in near-DVD quality at a resolution of 640x480.