Having yanked their content from iTunes after arguing with Apple over the prices charged for video – and accusing the company of slashing the cost of shows such as The Office and Scrubs so as to promote iPod sales – NBC are now apparently close to making up.  In a Financial Times report about network CEO Jeff Zucker, the NBC head-honcho suggests working relationships are beginning to be patched up:

Mr Zucker appears to have patched up relations with Apple after a pricing dispute last year led NBC to pull its shows from the iTunes digital media store. “We’ve said all along that we admire Apple, that we want to be in business with Apple,” he said. “We’re great fans of Steve Jobs.” Financial Times

The suspicion is now that NBC used the disagreement in part as a negotiating tactic, attempting to pressure Apple into relinquishing control of media prices into their own hands.  Steve Jobs’ recent announcement of partnerships with the major movie studios, however, may have suggested to NBC that the company was not as dependent on their TV downloads as assumed; while NBC’s content did make up 1,500hrs of media and it was Apple’s largest digital video partner, movie downloads and rentals have been received with far greater excitement.

[via TechCrunch]