Englewood Cliffs, N.J. - Days after tense negotiations with Apple resulted in the pending removal of its TV shows from the iTunes Store, NBC Universal announced that it has struck a deal with Amazon.com to offer its TV programming through the Amazon Unbox video download service.

NBCU said it will offer "a variety of content packages" on Unbox, perhaps hinting at the reported unwillingness of Apple to negotiate on bundling of programming during the failed negotiations.

NBC will give consumers a 30% discount when purchasing full seasons of TV shows, and beginning next week will offer free downloads of the pilot episodes of its new fall shows, including "Bionic Woman," "Chuck," "Journeyman" and "Life."

NBCU has offered movies from Universal Pictures, Rogue Pictures and Focus Features on Unbox since last September.

The Amazon Unbox service now includes over 10,000 TV shows, movies and other video content available for rent or purchase.

One drawback of the platform, is that it does not work with either Apple's Mac computers or the iPod; shows can be viewed only on Windows PCs and transferred only to Microsoft-supported portable players.

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http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070904/20070904006367.html?.v=1

http://unbox.amazon.com