NBC has come to the conclusion that more and more people are less interested in watching television programs in the old fashion way. For this reason, they have announced a service in which viewers will be able to download programs for free to their personal computer or other electronic device.

After the show airs first on NBC television, it will then be available through this service for a week. Popular shows that are set to kick things off include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Heroes. For how popular these programs are on regular television, it will be interesting to see how many downloads this translates into.

Early on, NBC offered programs for download through a contracted deal with Amazon. But most recently they have decided that offering their own download service was the way to go. In fact, NBC executives feel very strongly that this new service should be able to square off face to face with iTunes by Apple in the near future.

A test period for the service, NBC Direct, is set to take place during the month of October. By November, the company feels that the service should be ready to move forward full steam ahead. Windows based personal computers will be able to download select NBC shows free of charge for seven days following its television release. After that, the show will expire and be removed from the system.

By sometime in 2008, NBC hopes to have this service operating similar to iTunes. That being with consumers paying the company directly for downloads. So if you are excited about watching shows for free right now, keep in mind that this may not last much longer.

All in all, NBC Direct is an interesting concept to keep an eye on. It is safe to say that a lot of people will begin to download television programs from day one. But just how much success this service will have is still up in the air.

Filed under: Web News