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NBC withdrew from iTunes last August, citing Apple's refusal to allow flexible pricing, though Apple said that the broadcaster had wanted to double its wholesale price. But NBC also wanted Apple to introduce stricter DRM, repeating claims - made chiefly by Apple's competitors - that iPods are stuffed full of illegally copied material.

And speaking at the Ad:Tech conference in San Francisco,

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NBC's chief digital officer, George Kliavkoff repeated the allegation and implied that Apple should use iTunes to prevent it happening.

"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 measure," he said.

"One of the big issues for NBC is piracy," he added. "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."

Kliavkoff also said that NBC is finding it difficult to work with any company that wants to set both the wholesale and retail price, a clear reference to Apple's rigid iTunes pricing. Content providers should set the wholesale cost, he said.

But with Apple unlikely to budge either on cost or DRM, NBC shows such as The Office, ER and My Name is Earl will be available via BitTorrent, but not on iTunes.