A morsel for the online media consumer

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There was some excitement his week when Apple announced it would start selling some HBO shows through the company’s iTunes store.

Could it be that Time Warner, parent of the programming powerhouse that brings you such critically acclaimed shows ‘Entourage, ‘The Wire’ and ‘Deadwood,’ will actually begin giving fans a way to buy shows a la carte -- as they air?

Not a chance. The six HBO shows on iTunes won’t be available until the entire series is available on DVD -- a wait that can feel as long as the Democrats’ presidential primary. And my colleague Jon Healey ponders whether HBO’s resistance to making popular shows available when people want them will be its own death knell in a world where people have more things to do with their free time than sit down in front the TV.

Well, why should the cable industry hurry up and put its best stuff on the Web faster, and in the process help Apple build iTunes into even more of a powerhouse? After all, right now cable subscribers pay the bills. But for how long? Could there be a business selling episodes the day or week after they air for $3 or $4 a pop, rather than the standard $1.99? (Apple did relent to HBO and allow variable pricing, with ‘The Sopranos’ and some other shows costing $2.99).

I suspect that plenty of people would pay a few bucks for a new episode of ‘Entourage’ rather than wait for the DVD? But when they look at their bill, they might ask themselves, ‘Shouldn’t I just get cable?’

-- Michelle Quinn