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Apple offering credit for strike-shortened seasons

Season pass holders will receive a two-episode credit from Apple's iTunes Store for having to endure the writers' strike, and may get more compensation if fewer than expected episodes are delivered for a particular show.

Tom Krazit Former Staff writer, CNET News
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Tom Krazit

The Hollywood writers' strike might have shortened the television season, but iTunes customers will get some compensation for their losses.

iLounge noticed that Apple has started sending notices to iTunes Store season pass subscribers with good news: they'll be getting a two-episode credit from Apple to make up for the writers' strike.

Apple is also promising to provide partial refunds for shows that won't be delivered as a result of the strike. For example, if 20 episodes were promised when the season pass was purchased, but only 17 wind up getting made this year, it sounds like Apple will issue a credit for the missing three episodes. It's not clear whether the two-episode credit applies to that difference.

The Writers Guild of America went out on strike for about four months in hopes of negotiating a better compensation package for Internet downloads of writers' works. That forced the television-watching public to miss its daily dose of digitally delivered drugs and watch reruns and reality TV instead. The strike ended last month.

Buying a season pass to a particular show over the Internet is a relatively new way to watch TV, and this is a relatively interesting way of dealing with the strike. So far, my cable company has not offered me anything back for forcing everyone to watch The Moment of Truth.