Australia's highest rating television launch ever has become NineMSN's most downloaded program, but the real winner could be Apple.

Nine is letting you download entire episodes of Underbelly, A Tale of Two Cities for free, and was downloaded more than 50,000 downloads in the first 16 days - a new record for NineMSN. The files are DRM-protected and you have to install Nine's HIRO video CODEC (available for Windows Media Player on Windows or Quicktime on Mac), but this is still a massive step forward for an old world media giant like Nine.

What's more interesting is that Underbelly, A Tale of Two Cities is also the highest ranking television download on the Australian iTunes store, where Apple is charging $2.99 per episode. This blows a pretty big hole in the "you can't compete with free" argument.

What these iTunes customers are paying for convenience - knowing that Underbelly will be automatically downloaded each week in a format they can handle and then automatically transferred to their playback device of choice. You can cobble together a similar solution using BitTorrent, RSS and some video conversion tools, but clearly some people are prepared to pay someone else to take care of it all.

The entertainment industry should take note - perhaps the best way to fight piracy is to just give the people want they want, at a price they consider fair.