• The Wall Street Journal, Monday, September 6, 2010 9:44 PM

TV shows are emerging as a new front in the war over digital media between Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc., amid their ongoing battles over electronic books and online music. Hours after Apple said Wednesday that it would begin renting some shows for 99 cents per episode, Amazon cut its price on a similar set of shows to 99 cents from $2.99. And unlike Apple, which rents the videos, Amazon lets its customers buy the shows.

The price war could lead at least some media companies to pull existing episodes sold at $1.99 from Apple, one media executive said. "We're happy to sit back and see how it goes," said another media executive, who also suggested that competition between the two tech giants could be a boon.

While both News Corp. and Disney signed on to test its 99-cent TV-show rentals, other major media companies rejected the plan. Several executives fear those rentals could be a step toward a world where people see less advertising or stop paying for cable subscriptions-two principal sources of revenue.

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