NBC.COM to offer free downloads of TV shows

On Wednesday, 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. This announcement comes only three weeks after NBC Universal dropped out of the iTunes store and two weeks after it moved its television content to Amazon Unbox.

Besides the one week time limit, the gotcha is that while the shows are free, they will contain ads which cannot be skipped. Users could also subscribe to shows, meaning the shows would automatically be delivered to their PCs as soon after the broadcast as the downloads are available.

The press release also said:

The first version of this new feature, which will begin beta testing in October, will allow users to download full length episodes for viewing on Windows based PCs. Each original episode will be licensed to users for viewing through "NBC Direct" for one week following broadcast and will then expire. The downloaded file will provide users with an improved overall viewing experience compared to traditional streaming video. The list of programs available at launch will include "Heroes," "The Office," "Life," "Bionic Woman," "30 Rock," "Friday Night Lights," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

The Bionic Woman? They have high hopes for that show, I guess. Macs and iPods are in the future plans for the service. They will also later expand the service to allow customers to pay a fee for downloads that they would then own and could then transfer to other devices.

Hmmm. I'm sorry, that sounds a lot like that iTunes store you just left, eh NBC? Personally, watching on a PC just doesn't have the same oomph as watching on my 65" HDTV. I will admit, I could hook up a media PC to my TV, but -- my wife is convinced we have enough electronica in our living room. Otherwise, this would be a great service if for some reason I missed a show, but that doesn't happen very often with my Tivo (only in the event of a power outage -- knock on wood). So for me this service - and for that matter, iTunes video downloads - are not an attractive option.