Television fans are now able to download shows such as The Sopranos and Sex and the City from iTunes in the UK for the first time.

The deal announced today by Apple and the multi-award winning American broadcaster HBO, means that British viewers will be able to watch critically acclaimed download shows such as The Wire and Rome on their iPods.

Individual episodes will cost £1.89 each. Episodes from the latest series of both Entourage and The Wire, which have not yet been aired on British screens, will be will be available to download the morning after their UK premiere.

Apple will hope that the new range of TV shows offered by iTunes to British buyers, will tempt some into buying the revamped range of iPods, which were launched last week in time for the Christmas shopping season.

Joining the increasingly fierce battle for television viewers online was The Internet Movie Database website (www.imdb.com), a subsidiary of amazon.com. Today, the website announced that users can now watch over 6,000 full-length movies and TV episodes for free.

Col Needham, founder and managing director of IMDb.com, Inc said that that the site's readers were being offered a new "simple online experience" with the eventual goal to "show our users every movie and TV show on the Internet for free on IMDb.com."

TV shows offered for free on Imdb.com will include 24, Family Guy, House M.D. Heroes and The Simpsons.

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