[pheonixash]

With NBC and ABC both making free downloads of their shows available this week, Fox jumped on the trend with free downloads of new shows available on iTunes.

(Credit: Fox)
The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that Fox and Apple have reached an agreement to offer free downloads of the shows Fox is trying to promote this sweeps season: that is, the ones people aren't watching as much as they'd like. No Simpsons or Family Guy clips are among the five shows currently available for free on the iTunes Store. But episodes of shows sure to be forgotten in the sands of time, like Back To You, Til' Death and K-Ville, are currently available for free at the iTunes Store.

It's a strange time to be in the television business, as new strategies for reaching fickle television viewers are being trotted out. NBC decided it was done with Apple's iTunes Store earlier this year, and is now planning to offer shows like Heroes on its own Web site. ABC is putting shows like Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty on AOL Video.

The Times quoted Fox's William Bradford, senior vice president of content strategy, as saying, "I wouldn't call it fumbling around. We are trying a lot of different things and there is a lot of learning that the TV industry is going through." The traditional ads-on-the-show method isn't working as well these days with the popularity of DVRs, but it's not clear where the answer lies.

The Fox shows are commercial-free, unlike the NBC shows which force you to watch commercials as part of the free download. The idea, according to the Times report, is to get people interested in the shows, so they'll tune in at the regularly scheduled time or pay to download later episodes of the show from Apple.

Original Article

I think this is how NBC should have tried to promote their new shows, rather than trying to 'package' them with their other popular shows. Further shows off their greediness I guess. If FOX can afford this, I'm sure NBC could too.

[theDreamer]

I think this is a great thing.
I decided to watch Back to You for fun and while I am not setting my clock for it every week, this is a great way for me to know that I can easily just watch the show at my leisure now.

Also, allowing it to be commercial free is great and a wonderful way to show viewers that this X network cares about the show and not just stuffing a show inside advertisments.

[zro]

Isn't ABC still owned by Disney? How do they manage to not use the iTunes store? C'mon, Steve.

[alligator]

Here's what I use online shows for:

1. Rent Netflix DVD of a new TV show that I've missed (like Prison Break).
2. Realize that I only get two seasons of the show from Netflix.
3. When I want the missed episodes of the latest season already on the air BEFORE the DVD comes out, I use iTunes.
4. Send them to my Apple TV - and now I'm caught up.

Why can't TV studios understand this model?

[pheonixash]

I downloaded one of the free episodes that Fox is offering. I must say that the quality was top-notch. On my MacBook, it looked really good. And it was Widescreen too.