A wide variety of BBC television programmes are now available for users to download at Apple’s UK iTunes store. As per BBC, this is the first time any UK broadcaster has offered its programmes via iTunes. Every programme will cost £1.89 to users willing to download them. Once users have downloaded the programmes, they can play them on Mac or PC or even on video iPods, iPhones and Apple’s IPTV service.

The director of digital Media at BBC Worldwide, Simon Danker, said that with more and more people watching TV on iPods, this particular move will provide audiences with a huge range of alternatives to see BBC shows. Shows that are obtainable include Spooks, Life on Mars and Robin Hood. Other shows will also be available as soon as they are sown on BBC iPlayer. Recently, the BBC has joined hands with MySpace, YouTube, ITV and Channel 4 for the Kangaroo on-demand service.

The BBC has its own free on-demand service in the name of iPlayer. This allows all viewers to catch up with all the programs that they might have missed in the past week. The initive was extremely popular. Roughly 3.5 million programs downloaded it within the first two weeks of its launch. The programmes will first be available on iPlayer and then on iTunes.