New Episodes of Fox’s House Won’t Be on iTunes
NBC-iTunes Battle Claims Series Produced by NBC Universal Unit
By Alex Weprin -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/1/2007 4:41:00 PM
New episodes of popular Fox show House will not be available on iTunes, a spokesperson for Apple confirmed to B&C.
Though it airs on Fox, House is produced by Universal Media Studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal, which is severing its ties with iTunes when their contract expires in December.
House, which has been available on iTunes since May, began its fourth season on Fox last week. The ratings for the season premiere were the best for any returning show on any network so far. The season premiere delivered a 7.7 rating/19 share in the coveted 18-49 demographic.
NBC Universal’s involvement with the show may also explain why the season premiere of House was not offered along with Prison Break, Bones, Til Death and American Dad free-of-charge on Fox’s iTunes ministore last month.
It is unclear how the absence of House will affect iTunes’ bottom line, but the show has a strong following on the Web, and it was a popular buy on Apple’s media store. Before the show was available on iTunes, fans started petitions on Digg and other social networking sites to have it added to the store.
Despite the falling out between NBC and Apple, two of NBC’s fall shows have been made available on iTunes, Chuck and Journeyman. The shows -- produced by Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, respectively -- are not available in NBC’s iTunes ministore, but rather under the banner of the studios that produce them.
