Fox Giving Away Premiere Episodes on iTunes

Shows Available Day After Debut, for Two Weeks

By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/21/2007 9:54:00 AM

Fox will make premiere episodes of its new and returning shows available free-of-charge on iTunes.

The deal includes episodes of new series Back to You, K-Ville and Gordon Ramsay restaurant-make-over show Kitchen Nightmares, as well as returning shows Prison Break, Bones, American Dad and ‘Til Death. All shows will be available beginning the day after they premiere on the broadcast network and will remain on iTunes for two weeks.

“Our series have been a hit on the iTunes Store since debuting last year,” said William Bradford, senior vice president of content strategy for Fox. “These great premieres are available for free on iTunes for our fans to watch on iPods and iPhones -- an incredibly innovative way to catch broadcasts they may have missed on-air.”

Conspicuously absent from the free bin is Fox hit House, which premieres next week on the network.

The Fox-Apple deal follows NBC Universal’s break with Apple. Last month NBC declined to renew its contract with Apple and instead is selling its shows on Amazon's Unbox digital-video-download service.

Apple contended that the deal broke down because NBC was pushing to double the wholesale price for each episode of hit series like Heroes and The Office, which would have pushed the retail price of each episode to $4.99.