Rumor: HBO Coming to iTunes

Portfolio is reporting that Apple and HBO are "close" to announcing their agreement to sell HBO shows via iTunes, citing employees "involved in executing the agreement." According to them, programs and movies will be priced and offered up for grabs within one or two weeks, along with an official announcement that the service is up and running.

"Apple is close to announcing it has signed a deal to sell HBO programs and movies on the iTunes website, according to HBO employees involved in executing the agreement. The deal marks the first time that Apple has agreed to a separate price structure for a content provider, one of the employees said," the website reveals.

HBO is known for being a bit slow when it comes to offering content through new media, the same publication notes, claiming that the deal with Apple is actually the result of Time Warner's pressuring HBO, the same HBO employees are quoted as saying. "We should have done this a long time ago," one of the HBO insiders reportedly said.

Also, HBO programming is said to be priced a bit higher than Apple's $1.99 standard fee that it charges for video content. Apple could even be convinced to accept variable pricing for other content, something it hasn't done before. In fact, this is what Apple held against NBC when they pulled its shows from iTunes. NBC is back on iTunes now, seemingly thanks to a much more "flexible" attitude on behalf of the Cupertino-based corporation.

HBO is clearly aiming at expanding the revenue generated from archives, whether it's Apple's set-top-box, the Apple TV, that people choose to view content on, or the world's most popular portable media player, the iPod. Last year saw the Time Warner television programming subsidiary starting an online download service called HBO on Broadband. It lets HBO subscribers watch up to 400 hours of programming a month and even stream the HBO channel. The service is said to be spreading to other markets in the nearby future.

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