NBC Universal is going to make some of its TV shows available for free web download. Under NBC Direct consumers will be able to download programmes on the night that they are broadcast and keep them for seven days. They would also be able to subscribe to shows, guaranteeing delivery each week. The files, which would be downloaded overnight, would contain commercials that viewers would not be able to skip through, the file would not be transferable to a disk or to another computer, and the files would degrade after the seven-day period and be unwatchable. The service will be trialled in October and launched in November.
This is part of strategic experimentation to reengineer a business model being outmoded by satellite and the web. Networks continue to lose audience share, and viewers, especially highly prized viewers under 30 years old, are increasingly demanding control of their program choices, insisting on being able to watch shows when, where and how they want. And viewers are finding more ways to avoid watching the commercials that have long provided the bulk of television revenue. Jeff Gaspin, the president of the NBC Universal Television Group, notes, “The shift from programmer to consumer controlling program choices is the biggest change in the media business in the past 25 or 30 years.”
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