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Microsoft has announced they will be selling TV shows on their Zune Marketplace, including NBC/Universal series that are no longer sold by Apple.

NBC and Apple couldn’t reach an agreement due to Apple’s insistence on maintaining their own pricing structure. Apparently, Microsoft is more accommodating, so shows like Heroes and Battlestar Galactica will go on sale through Zune.

Zune hasn’t been able to put much of a dent in the iPod/iTunes juggernaut since its initial release in 2006. While Microsoft has sold 2 million Zunes since it launched, over 10 million iPods were sold in the first three months on 2008 alone.

Zune does have a few things going for it, not least of which is its wireless sync capability. All you need to do to update the Zune is plug it into its charger and its Wi-Fi capability will automatically update it.

Microsoft also offers Zune Pass, a $14.99 monthly service that lets users access any song in the Zune Marketplace catalog. Microsoft is considering adding more content to the service and lowering the fee.

Microsoft appears to be somewhat snakebit lately, though. They couldn’t get the Yahoo deal done, their big investment in Live Search has done nothing to take on Google, and their answer to the iPod is meeting with limited success. Add to that the bad press about Vista and it’s hard to think of any arena where Microsoft is adding to their base.

Thanks to the Associated Press for the story.

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