Great (and timely) post by Kevin Tofel over at jkOnTheRun, highlighting the new HD content available from iTunes (via version 8) and its impact on those consumers whose ISPs impose bandwidth caps.

I decided to see how big a single episode would be and luckily, one of my favorite shows is available as a freebie. I hit up a 43-minute Battlestar Galactica ep that's available at no charge and see that it's a 1.38 GB download. Now I don't think many Comcast customers are going to grab 180-odd high-def TV episodes from iTunes in a month to bump their cap, but these can add up quickly.

Time Warner Cable's 40 GB cap (equal to 29 "network hours" of HD) currently being trialed down in Texas doesn't look so generous, especially for a family sharing that connection, and side-loading content onto iPods. There's a big difference between expressing bandwidth caps in terms of HD video as compared to emails sent and web pages viewed.

As I've said before, a new JupiterResearch report on Usage-based Broadband will hit the street soon.