iTunes video: TV shows available to buy now in the UK

If you're one of the three British people that bought Apple TV, you'll probably have spent some time wondering when you might be able to buy stuff to watch on it. Well, we're happy to say it's sooner than you thought, because Apple has just launched a bunch of TV shows on its iTunes video store in the UK.

Programmes cost a hefty £1.89 -- yup, that's right, pretty much 89p more than the same show does on the US iTunes store. You can watch them on the usual devices, including Apple TV, the iPod and presumably, the iPhone, when that finally pitches up here.

The quality is the usual standard 640x480-pixel resolution, which is less than DVDs, which are usually around 720x576. We daresay you'd be far better off waiting for the DVD box-set to arrive, but if you love your Apple TV so much you simply can't bear to have it lying unused under your TV a moment longer, then this service will probably appeal.

You will be able to choose from a range of TV shows -- 28 in total to begin with -- including popular stuff such as Lost, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy and South Park. You can even download Desperate Housewives, but we can't think why anyone would watch that for free on TV, let alone spend their hard-earned cash on buying it. There's no word yet from Apple on when new content will appear in relation to being shown on British TV -- will we get to buy the next series of Lost before it's on here? We don't know, but we doubt it. The UK rights holders would certainly have something to say about it.

There doesn't appear to be much British-originated content at the moment (apart from Paramount Comedy's Jongleurs Unleashed stand-up), but that could very well be because all the main broadcasters all have their own on-demand services already, and are reluctant to commit to the Apple service.

While we're honoured that Apple has finally deigned to launch the video store in the UK, there isn't really much available that isn't available from places like 4oD and Sky Anytime. -Ian Morris