By AppleInsider Staff
Published: 01:00 PM EST
Apple on Friday afternoon issued a press release confirming that it will indeed halt sales of NBC television shows through its ubiquitous iTunes download service beginning with the upcoming television season.
The move, the company explained, follows
NBC’s decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99.
ABC, CBS, FOX and
The CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.99 per episode.
“We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers.”
Apple’s agreement with
NBC ends in December. Since
NBC would withdraw their shows in the middle of the television season, Apple has decided to not offer
NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season beginning in September.
NBC supplied iTunes with three of its 10 best selling TV shows last season, accounting for 30 percent of iTunes TV show sales.
