iTunes gets American TV shows. And there was some rejoicing.

I've often cast a skeptical eye over at the Canadian iTunes TV section, wondering who in their right mind would want to download Dragon's Den or FutureWeapons.

Slowly there have been some interesting shows added to the store, but today, the floodgates opened. Battlestar Galactica. The recently canceled and much lamented Sarah Conner Chronicles. Lost. 24.

Of course, there are some notable exceptions. Dollhouse, for instance, is not in the Canadian store, the store doesn't have the same depth of back catalogue as the US store does, and it'd be nice if the Canadian store were to offer some BBC/UK programming (Dr. Who, anyone?), but this is the breakthrough that Canadians have been wanting for a while. (Boy, have I just revealed myself to be the geek that I am with that list? Dollhouse? Dr. Who? BSG? Total geek.)

Now the question is, how will this affect cable and satellite? I don't know if we'll be dumping our satellite, at least not until we run some numbers, or at the very least until Dollhouse is on iTunes, but I know of a bunch of people who've already said sayonara to Rogers and Bell.

Episodes are $3.49 for HD, or $2.49 for standard def. A season pass for 24 is $64.99, which makes the cost per episode $2.70, assuming a 24 episode season, or $42.99/$1.79 per episode for standard definition.