Apple iTunes has begun to offer Multi-Pass packages that will provide 16 episodes of two Comedy Central shows (The Daily Show and The Colbert Report) as a single purchase of $9.99 USD. That is far cheaper than purchasing individual episodes at $1.99 USD each. Essentially, once you purchase the Multi-Pack future, you can download episodes already available and future episodes will download automatically when they are released.
I might be wrong but it looks like the DRM is the same as it is for single video downloads. Specifically, the Multi-Pack episodes are yours once downloaded (unlike other subscription models where you only own the content as long as you maintain your subscription).
Hopefully, Apple will expand its Multi-Pack selections in the future.