Apple iTunes starts selling HBO shows

Apple Inc. has scooped up Time Warner Inc.’s HBO to feed television shows to its online iTunes store, reeling in one of the last holdouts among major channels and agreeing to a rare pricing concession to land hit shows such as “The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City.”

Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple said HBO programming began appearing Tuesday on iTunes. The shows cost $1.99 or $2.99 per episode, making HBO the only channel allowed to charge more than the standard $1.99 for its episodes on iTunes.

Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, said the higher prices for some HBO shows were still cheaper than buying the DVD sets of the full seasons of those shows, which translated into prices two or three times higher per episode.