Thursday, March 9

Comedy Central Month Long Pass

Jon Stewart is going from the Academy Awards to the Apple store, joining the brats from “South Park” and the lurid ‘toons from “Drawn Together.” iTunes has teamed up with Comedy Central to offer a new service that will let users buy downloads of the network’s TV shows on a monthly basis. Under the service, called Multi-Pass, users will be able to buy the next month’s series of 16 new episodes for $9.99. They can also pay $1.99 per episode. iTunes insists that it is not a subscription service, noting that as a download, users will always own the videos. That differentiates it from online music subscription services like Napster and Real Networks, where users lose their music if they unsubscribe. The Wednesday launch came in connection with Comedy Central’s rollout of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and "The Colbert Report" on iTunes. The network first teamed up with the online music and video store six weeks ago, making shows like "South Park," "Drawn Together" and "Comedy Central Stand-Up" available for download. There will be no advertising on its service for the time being, according to the network. iTunes video launched at the end of last year and has since sold more than 8 million downloads.

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