ITunes to offer NBC shows

The programming spans from the 1950s to the present, including shows from "Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” "Dragnet,” USA Network’s "Monk,” the Sci-Fi Channel’s "Battlestar Galactica,” and NBC’s hit series "Law & Order.” Sketches from "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and "Late Night with Conan O’Brien” are also for sale.

Apple unleashed a dramatically different way of distributing television programs when it debuted videos for sale on its iTunes Music Store on Oct. 20 with Walt Disney Co.’s ABC as its first network partner. Customers have since downloaded more than three million videos.

The latest deal expands Apple’s TV catalog from five shows to 16.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

For NBC, the move is part of its growing digital distribution strategy to be "as ubiquitous as possible,” Jeff Zucker, president of General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal Television Group, said in a phone interview.

The network recently signed a deal to begin selling replays of its most popular shows on an on-demand basis through satellite TV provider DirecTV Group Inc., and last month announced it is collaborating with Sprint Nextel Corp. to make Leno’s monologue and comic sketches available on mobile phones.

NBC had been in talks with Apple’s chief executive Steve Jobs since the beginning of the year as Apple was developing its new video-playing iPod, Zucker said.

"Seeing how well it’s been received by the consumer has given us a lot more comfort and confidence with it,” Zucker said of the downloadable TV shows.

"As long as our content is protected from piracy, then there will be no barriers.”

"There’s certainly more to come,” he said.

Videos sold on iTunes are wrapped in Apple’s copyright-protection technology, which allows users to store their purchased content on up to five computers and transfer them to iPods. Users cannot copy the TV shows to a CD, DVD or the Internet.

An optional cable can be used to display an iPod show on a regular TV.