What TV Show Won’t Be Available on the Web?
by Paige Albiniak
[Article ID: 53-229]
Just two years ago, The WB made news by streaming the first episode of the now-cancelled “Jack and Bobby” over AOL. It was the first time a TV network had allowed a webcaster to stream an entire episode of any show.
Last year, networks gave audiences sneak peeks of several shows online, including The WB’s “Supernatural” on Yahoo!; UPN’s “Everybody Hates Chris” on Google Video, then in beta; and Fox’s “Reunion” on AOL. Later in the season, CBS starting streaming episodes of “Survivor” on its own web site.
Today, the question is what can’t viewers get online and on-demand? While premiering shows online was a limited experiment for networks in the past two years, this year it’s standard operating procedure. All the networks are offering “first-look” Web sites, and NBC also is sending out the pilots of “Kidnapped” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” via a partnership with Netflix, the popular DVD-by-mail service.
Webisodes also have become popular, with NBC’s “The Office” offering 12 Web-exclusive episodes this summer. And ABC, NBC, CBS and many cable networks all offer shows on iTunes for $1.99 an episode.
Last week, CBS said it would stream both new and returning primetime series for free on its new ad-supported broadband channel, Innertube. Shows that will be available starting in September are “CSI,” “CSI: Miami,” “CSI: New York,” “Jericho,” “NCIS,” “Numb3rs” and “Survivor.” All shows will be available the morning after they air. “Jericho” and “Survivor” will remain on Innertube all season long, while the other shows will be available for four weeks after they air.
That mimics what ABC is doing on ABC.com. After running a test of the site this summer – featuring such programs as “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Alias” -- ABC last month said it would maintain the service, offering popular shows for free on its ad-supported web site. Which shows will be available on the service has yet to be decided.
News Corp.-owned Fox last week started offering primetime shows on nine out of 24 of its owned-and-operated TV station web sites, including WNYW New York, KTTV Los Angeles, WFXT Boston, KDFW Dallas, WTTG Washington DC, WTVT Tampa Bay, WOFL Orlando, WBRC Birmingham and WGHP Greensboro. Fox also is in talks with all 150 of its station affiliates to offer the service.
Car maker Toyota will be the exclusive advertising sponsor of online episodes of five shows. Episodes of hot shows “Prison Break” and “Bones” will be available the day after they air in primetime. The first full season of “The Loop,” which returns in January, and select episodes of Sunday night sitcom American Dad and the cancelled “Stacked” also will be offered through the new “Fox on Demand” service.
ABC and CBS both are streaming primetime shows online from their network sites, while Fox is the only network to offer the programs through its station sites. Fox executives say they decided to go that route because the group’s stations are in a better position to promote online programming throughout the entire day, plus the stations can use the service to target local advertising.
Ever since last spring, when Fox announced that it had hammered out a digital agreement with its 150 TV station affiliates, the company has been aggressively making content digitally available. Episodes of “24” as well as movies produced by News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox studio are available via Fox-owned IGN Entertainment’s Direct2Drive web site starting this October.
Network news is even further ahead of entertainment, with all three of the major network newscasts largely available online.
CBS last week said it would simulcast the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” online, as well as offer it later for on-demand download. Viewers also can create their own customized newscasts, picking and choosing from among several video clips, as they have been able to do for a few years now.
Beyond the Internet simulcast, the “CBS Evening News” will offer:
a blog called “Couric & Company,” which will be constantly updated and include contributions from CBS News correspondents from all over the world and link to video;
a daily, on-demand Web exclusive titled “Eye to Eye,” which will feature extended interviews with the day’s newsmakers. “Eye to Eye” will run approximately five minutes and will be hosted by Couric or another CBS News correspondent. It will be available via audio or video podcast;
a Web-exclusive rundown of the day’s news called “CBS News First Look with Katie Couric,” which will go online every afternoon and will be offered on demand on CBS News.com and on the blog;
and finally, “Katie Couric’s Notebook” will be a one-minute look into a top story or issue that Couric is following. It will be available as an audio and video podcast or on iTunes.
CBS may be the only network news organization to simulcast its entire nightly broadcast, but both ABC and NBC News offer extensive Internet extensions.
ABC offers a 15-minute Internet version each day of “ABC News World Now with Charles Gibson,” a feature ABC has been offering for about seven months. The netcast is tailored especially for Web viewing, says ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider. The “World News” website also offers plenty of video from all of ABC’s news programs, including “Good Morning America,” “Primetime Live” and “20/20.”
NBC streams a customized-version of the “NBC Nightly News” on the Web, and has been doing so since October 31, 2005. The netcast is available after 10 p.m. on the night of the broadcast and the entire week’s episodes remain online through the weekend.
NBC also has a blog called “The Daily Nightly,” with anchor Brian Williams, and a first-look feature called “The Early Nightly,” which is hosted by Williams or another NBC News correspondent.
“We have long recognized the importance of being everywhere our audience wants us to be,” says Barbara Levin, NBC News spokeswoman.
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