NBC’s and Apple’s negotiations over terms for digital video download sales has turned into a PR war.

Apple announced earlier in the week that it would no longer be carrying NBC shows for download, because of failure to reach an agreement over terms. According to Apple, NBC wanted to double its wholesale pricing for shows.
At the time, Eddy Cue, Apple‚Äôs vice president of iTunes, said “We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase. We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers.”

Now NBC is disputing Apple’s statement. Here’s what Cory Shields, EVP Communications of NBC Universal, had to say about the matter:

We are also disappointed in not being able to successfully negotiate a new iTunes agreement with Apple. We’re hopeful that we can reach a resolution before the existing contract expires. However, we felt it important to set the record straight.

We never asked to double the wholesale price for our TV shows. In fact, our negotiations were centered on our request for flexibility in wholesale pricing, including the ability to package shows together in ways that could make our content even more attractive for consumers.

It is clear that Apple’s retail pricing strategy for its iTunes service is designed to drive sales of Apple devices, at the expense of those who create the content that make these devices worth buying.

In addition, we asked Apple to take concrete steps to protect content from piracy, since it is estimated that the typical iPod contains a significant amount of illegally downloaded material.

Furthermore, we want consumers to know that all our returning series, including new episodes, will be available on iTunes through the remainder of the contract, which expires in early December. Our content is also available on NBC.com, Amazon.com, and the soon-to-launch hulu.com.

Unfortunately for NBC, none of these other digital video stores are selling anywhere near the volume that Apple is.