With no fanfare Apple has opened a new new aisle in the iTunes Store. Australian customers can finally access episodes of some of their favourite TV shows.

Popular American imports Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives are there as well as Bit Torrent favourite Lost. Local productions from Channel 9, McLeod's Daughters, Sea Patrol II and Canal Road are also available with the ABC represented with Chris Lilley classics We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High there as well. That's interesting as those shows were freely available from the ABC when screened through their vodcast service.

There's plenty for the kids as well with Blues Clues, Hannah Montana and Cory in the House.

The full list of shows is

Blues Clues
Canal Road
Cory in the House
Desperate housewives
Double the Fist
Foreign Correspondents Postcards
Grey's Anatomy
Hannah Montana
Laguna Beach
Lost
McLeod's Daughters
My Super Sweet Sixteen
Pimp my Ride
Scrubs
Sea Patrol: The Coup
Sleek Geeks
South Park
Summer Heights High
Surfing the Menu
The Hills
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
Urban Magic
We Can Be Heroes

Individual episodes are priced at $2.99 - that's a hefty premium on the US prices of $1.99USD. Full series cost start at around $40 but range up to over $60. Depending on what you're after it may be cheaper to buy the DVD. All the series available are complete so there's no sign that we'll be able to download episodes the day after they air as it the US practice. A look at a current series such as Sea Patrol II shows that you can download all the current episodes for $17.94 (the cost of the six individual episodes that are available) even though the series is intended to run for 13 episodes.

OK - so it's not as good as the US store but it's a start.

 Apple • iTunes • TV