NBC, CBS passing on iTunes?

Both NBC and CBS announced on Monday that they will be making reruns of some of their most popular shows available for purchase at $0.99 each, commercial-free, early next year. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, two versions of Law &
Order (SVU and Criminal Intent), The Office and Surface will be available initially. Also, USA Network's Monk (one of my favorite shows) and the Si Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica will be a part of the deal. More after the jump.

Soon after the initial airing of each show, they will be stripped of commercials and sent to customers' DirecTV Plus DVRs, where they can then be viewed for $0.99. CNN's Money notes that CSI, NCIS, Survivor and The Amazing Race will only be available to CBS-owned TV stations served by Comcast, including Los Angeles, Chicago,
Dallas, Philadelphia, Baltimore and some outlying suburbs of New York City. In other words, if you live in Atlanta, you're out of luck.

What does this mean for the future of NBC and CBS shows in iTunes? Well,
their price of $0.99 is pretty nice, and makes Apple's two bucks looks like highway robbery. I can't imagine CSI being available for $0.99 via On Demand and $1.99 via iTunes simultaneously. Of course, shows purchased via On Demand aren't jettisoned to your iPod as easily as ITMS purchases, but I imagine that the majority of "television on demand" customers want to watch their shows on a television anyway.

Let's hope Steve has something up his sleeve for Macworld in January. I want the ease and convenience of having all my shows available for purchase from a single location.