Networks Get Streams Flowing

Zap2It.com | September 13, 2006

CBS' 'Old Christine,' starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus...

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ABC, CBS, NBC all offering multiple shows online

The 2006-07 TV season officially starts next week, which means that new shows will be coming at you on TV, your iPod and various streaming-video outlets right about ... now.

ABC, CBS and NBC have all announced big streaming-video plans for the fall. FOX has already offered three episodes of its shows "Prison Break" and "Vanished" on dozens of sites, and The CW will surely have some alternate-outlet plans too.

CBS, which has already made its new comedy "The Class" available to TiVo subscribers, is also streaming that show and two others -- "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "Smith" -- on Google Video starting today. The three shows, all produced by Warner Bros. TV, will be available for free through Saturday, Sept. 17.

The Eye also has plans to stream seven of its shows, including all three "CSIs" and the new drama "Jericho," on its innertube broadband site the day after they air. Those episodes will be free and supported by advertising.

ABC and NBC are also planning to offer multiple shows at their respective web sites, following the same pattern of putting episodes online shortly after they air on television.

ABC will have seven shows available on its broadband player, starting with "Grey's Anatomy" and new drama "Six Degrees" on Friday, Sept. 22, the day after they premiere. Episodes of "Desperate Housewives," "Ugly Betty," "Lost," "The Nine" and "The Knights of Prosperity" will also stream on the site following their debuts. (ABC is also putting "Grey's Anatomy" on iTunes starting next month.)

The network will allow its affiliates to use the player on their own sites and sell local advertising.

At NBC, the network will stream episodes of all of its new shows -- four each for the comedies "30 Rock" and "Twenty Good Years" and eight apiece for its dramas "Kidnapped," "Friday Night Lights," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Heroes."

Additionally, NBC.com will host live blogs for all of its series, new and old, on the night of their premieres. The blogs will let users chat with creators and producers (or in the case of "The Biggest Loser," trainer Bob Harper) of each show about the premiere episode and what's to come later in the season.