Universal’s recent decision to not renew its contract with Apple for placing its copyrighted material on iTunes for user download is followed by NBC’s decision to pull its shows from the commercial download service.

Apple today announced that iTunes will no longer be selling NBC TV shows for the Fall season. This follows numerous protracted disputes of lack of control in Apple’s pricing systems, protection against piracy, and the inability to bundle videos to increase revenue.

The grapevine have it that NBC had increased its wholesale price to Apple to more than twice its previous level for per episode. This increase would have a knock on effect on pricing to the consumer, hiking it from $1.99 to $4.99. Perhaps understandably Apple have some problems with this increase.

Apple’s contract with NBC will not be renewed when it ends in December, but Apple will will actually not be offering shows from the season starting this September.

Needless to say this is bad news for Apple (and if it signals the start of a trend for other content providers then it could well be fatal news) who relied on NBC for 30 percent of its iTunes TV show sales and three of its 10 best selling TV shows from the previous season. Downloads from ABC, CBS, FOX and the CW, along with 50+ other networks, will still be available (so we’re not shedding too many tears for Apple).

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