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by Dan J Kroll

Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007 12:32:57 PM

Fans that miss an episode of Days of our Lives now have another way to catch up with their favorite soap. Episodes of the popular NBC soap are now available for download via Apple's iTunes service.

What is your preferred way to watch Days of our Lives?  I watch the show daily when it first airs on NBC.   38%   I TiVo or record my soaps and watch them on the weekend/when I have time.   31%   I tend to catch up on DAYS by watching at night on SOAPnet.   22%   I don't get a chance to watch, so I use soapcentral.com to keep me updated.   5%   Other   2%   I will probably download DAYS episodes as needed and watch them.   2%     Poll Posted: June 12, 2007

The new offerings on iTunes began on June 11th and new episodes of DAYS will be made available for download the day after the episode was broadcast. For example, Monday's show will be available for download on Tuesday. Each download will cost $1.99, which is in line with the cost of other television downloads. However, fans can purchase a special "multi-pass" for $9.99 that will allow them to download 20 episodes - or about one month's worth of shows. The multi-pass brings the per-episode cost down to about $0.50.

As a special added bonus, there is currently some discussion that iTunes users will also be able to download bonus or deleted scenes. To date, however, no official announcement has been made.

The decision to allow Days of our Lives downloads comes at a time when DAYS is fighting some of its worst ratings in history. The show has suffered through budget cuts and a change to its writing team. Additionally, the show the precedes it on most NBC stations, the talk show "iVillage Live," barely registers on the ratings chart and doesn't allow much of a chance for any new viewers to happen upon the show by accident.

Days of our Lives also airs same-day repeat episodes on SOAPnet, but the all soaps cable channel is not available in all homes. And, of course, DAYS fans can continue to keep up-to-date on the goings-on in Salem through soapcentral.com Daily Recaps, news and spoilers.