NBC to Offer Free Downloads of Its Shows
On Thursday, NBC announced a new service, "NBC Direct." NBC Direct will
allow users to download and view many popular NBC shows -- for free.
The shows will require a special player, and they will have a license
that expires one week after the original airing -- note carefully, not
one week after you download it, but one week after the show originally
aired.
Under the new NBC service, called NBC Direct, consumers will be able to download, for no fee, NBC programs like “Heroes,” “The Office” and “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” 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.
Under the new NBC service, called NBC Direct, consumers will be able to download, for no fee, NBC programs like “Heroes,” “The Office” and “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” 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.
But the files, which would be downloaded overnight to home computers, would contain commercials that viewers would not be able to skip through. And the file would not be transferable to a disk or to another computer.
You will be able to set up subscriptions and have the episodes delivered automatically to your system, as well. But wait ... 65" HDTV or my PC screen? And with ads that can't be skipped as well. The choice is clear! There will be some that will download these episodes, but for those of us with Tivos, it really makes no sense ... unless you have a power outage and miss the recording.
