After years of holding out, HBO programming is now on iTunes, joining fellow pay channel Showtime (which has been on there for a while). There’s six initial shows available, sort of a greatest hits of semi-recent HBO fare (with nothing too current, so they’re only competing against DVDs instead of their monthly service) - dramas “The Wire,” “Rome,” “The Sopranos,” and “Deadwood” and comedies “Flight of the Conchords” and “Sex and the City.” Somewhat randomly, all the dramas other than “The Wire” are $2.99 an episode, and the other three shows are the more standard $1.99. So if you never wanted to pay a monthly fee, and don’t bother with DVDs, now’s your chance to watch a bunch of shows that are mostly years old! Take that, cable company!

It looks like all of “SatC is on there, but only the first and last seasons of “The Sopranos,” and season one of “The Wire,” “Rome” and “Deadwood.” “FotC” only has one season so far, natch. So it’s a start. I definitely recommend “Conchords” to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, though it’s probably cheaper to just pick up the DVD.