NEW YORK: News Corp.'s community website MySpace.com will sell episodes of Fox's hit TV series "24" as part of the media company's plan to convert the highly popular teen website into a business modeled on Apple Computer's iTunes Music store.
The site will offer each of the episodes of "24" from seasons one and five at $1.99 for downloads. Its ultimate plan is to create a social network to help users to discuss the drama, put up their own content and download subsequent episodes.
Two free episodes of the show will be sponsored by U.S. hamburger chain Burger King Holdings. Gillian Smith, senior director for media at Burger King said the company will give consumers what they want with the choice of free shows -- "wherever and whenever they want to watch them - and the ability to talk about those shows in the social networking environment of MySpace."
MySpace.com boasts of some 80 million registered users and has recently concluded advertising contracts with Pepsi, Toyota and Coca-Cola.
Several TV networks have approached iTunes Music Store to make available their shows for downloads at $1.99. Even News Corp.-owned Fox has signed a deal to sell shows on the service.
