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CBS, NBC Join Move to Offer TV on Demand

Posted on: Thursday, 10 November 2005, 18:00 CST

By Associated Press

* Just weeks after ABC announces a partnership with Apple Computer, the two networks reach agreements with satellite and cable broadcast systems.

* * *

In the latest sign of how quickly technology is changing the entertainment and communication industries, two major television broadcast networks have announced that they are partnering with cable and satellite broadcast systems to make several of their most popular shows available on an on-demand basis.

The announcements by NBC and CBS that viewers will soon be able to watch some of their favorite shows when they want to for a fee represents a major challenge to the half-century-old business model of broadcast television.

The replays of such NBC shows as Law and Order: Special Victims Unit on the satellite broadcaster DirecTV Inc. will be commercial- free, but viewers will have to buy a new digital video recording box that goes on sale next week.

The CBS shows, including CSI, will be offered to roughly 5 million subscribers to Comcast Corp.'s digital cable service. Those shows will still have commercials, but users will be able to zap through them with their remote controls.

Both services start early next year.

The announcements came just weeks after Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network said it would make available episodes of its hit shows Desperate Housewives and Lost for viewing on Apple Computer Inc.'s new video iPod for $1.99.

By handing over more control to viewers, media companies are responding to rapid changes in the technology used to distribute, store and view TV shows.

Meanwhile, Verizon Communications Inc. said yesterday that it was sharply cutting its prices for unlimited telephone service in several markets in the Northeast.

The price cuts are only the latest sign of how the telephone and cable industries are increasingly venturing into one another's traditional markets in a bid to win new customers.

The price reductions appear to be prompted in part by recent announcements by Comcast, which services much of Massachusetts, and Cablevision, which operates in New York and southern Connecticut, that they had increased the speed of their broadband service.

The lower-priced Verizon calling plans are being offered in several markets, including Massachusetts and Connecticut. There was no timetable for when the company might introduce the new plans to other areas, including Rhode Island.

Source: Providence Journal

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