Digital music fans and media industry insiders have long waited for Apple to make its play in the subscription game, challenging rivals like Rhapsody and Napster on the fee-based, all-you-can-eat service front.

Apple's iTunes store took the first step in showing its cards today, rolling out Multi-Pass, a subscription feature that doesn't include music downloads but sets up the framework for such a monthly fee-based service.

Comedy Central said today that it inked a deal to offer its two stalwart shows, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, as subscription-based downloads on iTunes. Fans will be able to buy the next month's series of 16 new episodes via Multi-Pass for $9.99. Four episodes air each week and viewers can download each episode after it has been broadcast.

iTunes also added those shows to its catalog of shows available for individual episode downloads for $1.99 per episode. iTunes had previously inked a deal with Comedy Central to offer shows like South Park, Drawn Together, and Comedy Central Stand-Up for $1.99 apiece. All downloaded shows are transferable to Apple's iPod portable player.

"Fans of the most trusted names in fake news can now take Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert with them everywhere they go," Comedy Central's Michele Ganeless said in a statement.

Apple said last month that 15 million videos have been downloaded through iTunes since last October. The company has also reportedly made early moves into a subscription-based movie download service.