HBO on Monday announced it will be using the Web slightly differently than most, launching its own Web video series called “Hooking Up.” It’s a part of HBOlab, an experimental offshoot of the cable network’s online programming.

Jessica Rose of “lonelygirl15” will star in a 10-part show that begins airing on Oct. 1 on its own site — Hookingupshow.com — and on MySpaceTV and YouTube. Rose is accompanied on the show by video bloggers sxePhil and KevJumba, giving the program three of the Internet’s most popular entertainers.

“I think we’re going to see a lot more hits than had we cast a bunch of funny people you didn’t know,” said Fran Shea, head of HBOlab.

To date, the cable network has dipped its toe into the Internet TV waters with a new service dubbed “HBO on Broadband” in January, which was offered free of charge to existing subscribers only. HBO also made some of its shows, including “The Wire,” available on iTunes.

HBOlab has concentrated on creating an online hub for a collection of comedy videos called “Runway Box.” HBOlab, however, is beginning to make its move with “Hooking Up,” and another Top 10 YouTube star Michael Buckley on the “What the Buck Show” will not only appear in “Hooking Up” but also has signed a development deal that will cast him in other projects in the works.

HBO, careful and stingy with how its content is distributed, isn’t investing a lot here with “Hooking Up,” and if it flops will anybody notice? HBO isn’t spending much on the series, and it’s committed to just 10 episodes.

Cautious as HBO may be, the experiment is notable and worth trying. One of these days HBO will settle on a strategy as unique as its shows.

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• “The Wire”: $1.99
• “Flight of the Conchords”: $1.99
• “Sex and the City”: $1.99
• “Deadwood”: $2.99
• “Rome”: $2.99
• “The Sopranos”: $2.99

(Apple release)

This translates to considerable savings, especially for those who 1) don’t subscribe to HBO; 2) are interested in the series but are not sure if they want to spend the money on the boxed sets; 3) would buy the boxed sets if they were a little cheaper.

For example, there are 13 episodes in the first season of “The Wire.” This boxed set costs, depending on where you purchase, between $55 and $60. You can find it on sale periodically at places like Best Buy for around $35. At $1.99 an episode, the total cost for the season at iTunes: $25.87, without tax.

Even at $2.99 an episode, there are significant cost savings to downloading the content from the Web. “Rome” and “Deadwood” both cost $35.88, without tax, for a season. To buy the physical discs at the store or off Amazon, the regular price would range between $55 and $80, again depending on where you shop.

Of course, you don’t get all the extras like commentaries and deleted scenes that come with boxed sets, but to some of us that doesn’t matter. All we want is to see the shows and not spend a fortune on boxed sets for programs we may or may not want to collect.

The difference is astounding. To buy all four seasons of “The Wire” on iTunes (when they are all available), you’d pay $129.40 without tax. To buy the four boxed sets (season five is not yet available), you’d pay about $220 regular price.

Even with an increased price for some of the shows, it looks like everybody wins.

Apple: more premium content (and maybe this will open up NBC’s return to iTunes)

HBO: an online presence, at a price they’re comfortable with; extending HBO content beyond its 40 million subscribers; giving life to older programs no longer on the air.

The consumer: easy access to premium content that was once unavailable online; considerable savings if you don’t care to own the boxed sets.

Sadly, second seasons and beyond of these show are not available yet, but we expect they will be in time. HBO says it will be adding more original programming.

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” anybody

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For Apple, it will be the first time the company will allow variable pricing for content on iTunes in the United States. According to Josh Saul of Portfolio.com, sources indicate that Apple has agreed to a separate price structure to bring HBO content to iTunes.

No details were given, but it’s expected that HBO shows will sell for more than $1.99 a episode. Apple has held steadfast to its philosophy of fixed pricing — $0.99 cents per song, $1.99 for TV shows, $2.99 to $4.99 for movie rentals and $9.99 to $14.99 for movie purchases.

Apple has been so adamant about fixed pricing that NBC to pull its shows from iTunes at the end of last year after a loud, public dispute over, in part, variable pricing demands.

For HBO, the expected agreement marks the first time the cable station’s content will be available online. This content includes current shows such as “John Adams” or “Entourage” as well as old favorites like “Sex in the City,” “The Sopranos,” and “The Wire.”

HBO is currently testing an online download service, known as HBO on Broadband, letting subscribers watch 400 hours of programming a month and stream its main channel. HBOB is being tested in Wisconsin before moving to other markets.

HBO on Broadband is available only to current subscribers, while selling through iTunes would make current and catalog content accessible to many more people.

HBO has long frustrated online viewers by not making its content available except on its cable channel and on DVD, often many months after a show’s final episode in a season. Additionally, HBO DVD sets of shows such as “Deadwood” or “Rome” sell at a premium price — about $80 a set when other networks offer full seasons of their shows for $50 or less.

Whether HBO’s higher price tag for shows on DVD is the reason for the flexible pricing on iTunes, no one has said. But it’s clear something significant is happening to iTunes, most of which has not been revealed to us yet.

Our guess is that Apple is about to relax fixed pricing, at least for television shows and movies, or maybe even do away with it altogether.

Low-cost fixed pricing helped Apple establish iTunes and digital downloading, but it may have run its course and Apple is preparing for a shift in the market. Access to greater and more diverse content for variable pricing may be a tradeoff Apple is willing to make for its customers and content owners.

Apple is trying to increase TV and movie sales on iTunes and the awareness of its AppleTV device, which allows people to rent or purchase movies or buy TV shows over the Internet from their televisions. Access to top-rated and newly-released content is appealing to viewers. At the beginning of May, Apple announced that movies from all major studios will be available for purchase from iTunes the same day the DVDs go on sale in stores.

As far as music, in mid March the Financial Times reported that Apple was in discussions with the major record labels to allow customers unlimited access to the entire iTunes music library in exchange for paying a premium for iPod and iPhone devices. The subscription is an “all you can eat” model similar to Nokia’s “comes with music” deal.

Yes, something is going on at iTunes. Maybe Steve Jobs will tell us more in his keynote at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference.

Photo Illustration above by: Taylor Umlauf, Portfolio.com

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