NBC says it wants to be able to put its TV content back on the iTunes Store, but still has a few reservations—one of which could hold the network back from joining iTunes forever. NBC would still like to be able to bump up prices—something that Apple has been stubborn about in the past, but has shown it's open to negotiation over when it comes to movie licensing. NBC would also like Apple to tighten up its DRM, however, in such a way that would block NBC's content from being transferred onto iPods.

NBC chief digital officer George Kliavkoff made the comments during an interview at this week's Ad:Tech conference in San Francisco, where he discussed what the company wants out of its relationship with Apple. "We'd love to be on iTunes. It has a great customer experience. We'd love to figure out a way to distribute our content on iTunes," Kliavkoff said, according to CNet. "We have film distribution with iTunes so yes, we do talk to Apple."

Still, those hopeful that their favorite shows might make a triumphant return to iTunes anytime soon shouldn't hold their breath. The kicker was when Kliavkoff decided to delve into piracy and digital music players. "If you look at studies about MP3 players, especially leading MP3 players and what portion of that content is pirated, and think about how that content gets onto that device, it has to go through a gatekeeping piece of software, which would be a convenient place to put some antipiracy measures," he said. "One of the big issues for NBC is piracy. We are financially harmed every day by piracy. It results in us not being able to invest as much money in the next generation of film and TV products."

That's right: NBC would like to dump its contents back onto iTunes, ask you for at least $2 (or more) per episode, and then have Apple place extremely tight restrictions on if and how it can be played on an iPod or iPhone. Without the ability to take it with you off of a computer—like, say, when you're riding the train to work, or flying across the country—there isn't a lot of difference between buying a show on iTunes and watching it for free on Hulu. And perhaps that's the point.

Kliavkoff also indicated that NBC still expects more control over pricing (translation: more money), and even made a jab at Apple's effect on the music industry as a result of its rigid pricing structure: "The music industry guys would have something to say about how the pricing has affected their product over the last few years," he said.

When NBC and Apple had their messy break-up last August, Apple accused the network of attempting to hike up prices from $1.99 to $4.99 per download. This was in addition to reports in the media that the two were already butting heads over DRM. (Apple's fairly liberal DRM scheme allows users to authorize up to five different machines, and play DRMed content on an unlimited number of iPods synced up to those machines—it's one of the few DRM schemes in use that doesn't completely stifle users, but that Hollywood and TV networks have long hated.) In December, NBC pulled its long list of shows from the iTunes Store, as it had just begun testing its own online video venture, Hulu. Hulu has turned out to be pretty decent, as far as online video is concerned, although it still has a number of limitations (including only being able to access videos while online, and not being able to download them to any devices).

Since Apple's iPods (and iPhone) are appealing in no small part because of their ability to play content from the iTunes Store, we will likely see pigs grow wings and take off before Steve Jobs agrees to enforce the type of restrictions that NBC apparently wants.