TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: NBC to Offer New Shows on Internet to Help Build Audiences

NBC to Offer New Shows on Internet to Help Build Audiences

Reuters News Wire (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Wed, 13 Sep 2006 22:11:58 -0500

NBC Universal said on Wednesday it will offer episodes of some of its
new prime-time shows for free online viewing on personal computers in
a bid to build an audience for its fall schedule.

NBC will stream the first four episodes of comedies "30 Rock" and
"Twenty Good Years," and the first eight episodes of dramas
"Kidnapped," "Friday Night Lights," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"
and "Heroes" on its ad-supported broadband player at NBC.com.

Each episode will appear on the site after it airs on NBC and will be
available for a week, said Jeff Gaspin, president of NBC Universal
Cable Entertainment, Digital Content and Cross-Network Strategy.

"We are looking to reach as many people as possible and to get as much
sampling (of shows) as possible for the new series," Gaspin said on
Wednesday. "This is an experiment with us. We are just committing
through November sweeps now."

NBC.com also will host live blogs with the creators, producers or cast
for every show following its premiere on NBC, which is owned by
General Electric Co..

A high-resolution, large-format version of NBC's broadband player,
called NBC/24, will relaunch on October 1.

Gaspin said the primary goal of the broadband player was to attract
new viewers. He said the network could decide to offer more episodes
through its new broadband distribution venture, NBC Broadband Co.

The network set up NBC Broadband, known as nbbc, to distribute and
profit from its content on the Internet by providing video clips for
free to Web sites, including those of NBC affiliates, in exchange for
a cut of advertising sales.

The Walt Disney Co. also announced on Wednesday that it will offer
episodes of seven of its fall shows on an ad-supported broadband
player that it tested over the summer.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at
http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or)
http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html

For more news and headlines, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: Monty Solomon: "Skype Introduces Video Calling for Macintosh Users; Cross"
Go to Previous message: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com: "Re: Speed Dials"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page