"We wanted to give our viewers and consumers a new way to discover our content," Fox's Bradford said. Snaring marquee space on Apple's iTunes store should help expose Fox's shows to a younger and largely affluent audience, he said.
This is not the first time that free premiere episodes of network shows have been made available on iTunes. A year ago, NBC offered "Heroes" on iTunes. The show went on to become a big hit. CBS shared "Jericho," which developed a loyal Internet following. Earlier this month, Apple surpassed the sale of 100 million episodes of TV shows through the iTunes store.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, September 22, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 51 words Type of Material: Correction
Fox TV downloads: An article in the Business section on Friday about Apple Inc.'s plan to offer free downloads of premiere episodes of Fox Broadcasting programs described Bain & Co. as a private equity firm. It is a management consulting firm. Bain Capital, an unrelated company, is a private equity firm.
"Our goals are alike," Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes, said of the Fox deal. "Fox is interested in selling shows and getting people to watch them on TV. We are helping promote both the buying of shows and watching of TV. If people watch a show on TV, they are more likely to buy a download if they miss an episode."
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meg.james@latimes.com
Times staff writer Dawn Chmielewski contributed to this report.
