Apple has announced that all four of the major TV broadcasters; ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, have agreed to offer programming in HD on the company’s iTunes platform.
The shows will cost $2.99, a premium over the $1.99 for standard definition and the company says there are about 600 shows available in HD on iTunes now.
Since Apple announced limited HD programming last month, they have sold over 1 million HD shows, most being NBC content that returned to the store after a one year absence.
A few of the new notable shows added are ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Dirty Sexy Money,” “Eli Stone,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Life on Mars,” “Lost,” “Private Practice,” “Samantha Who?” and “Ugly Betty.” CBS programming includes “CSI,” “CSI: Miami,” “CSI: New York,” “NCIS” and “Numb3rs.” FOX shows include “Bones,” “House,” “Prison Break” and “Sons of Anarchy,” from FX.
Although I am sure the shows will sell extremely well, I’m not sure I understand why when pretty much all the content is available for free (with limited ads), and in HD, elsewhere on sites such as Hulu.
Result for: numb3rs
Netflix has made agreements with both Disney and CBS to have content from both studios streamed on its Instant Watch service.
A few of the notable shows from the deals are NCIS, Numb3rs , Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, The Suite Life on Deck and the entire CSI franchise.
Netflix currently has 12,000 titles in their streaming inventory and says the new agreements will add “meaningfully” to that number.
“We are thrilled to enter into these relationships with CBS and Disney Channel and build upon their innovative distribution strategies,” added Robert Kyncl, VP of content acquisition for Netflix in a statement.
Netflix says there will be access to 500 Disney episodes and 350 CBS episodes to start.
