THE INTERNET Networks seek ways to expand TV habit

Broadband service paved the way for 'webisodes.'
By ROBERT PHILPOT
FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Last week, in an effort to shake off the summer-TV doldrums, NBC debuted new episodes of "The Office," its Emmy-nominated comedy series. But there's a catch: To watch them, you have to use a computer.
They're not actually episodes per se, but "webisodes," running about three minutes apiece on www.nbc.com. They tell a serialized story about the sad-sack Dunder Mifflin accounting department's attempts to figure out what happened to a missing $3,000.
These 10 webisodes are the latest in a series of TV network experiments in using nontraditional methods, such as broadband, iTunes, cellphones and even viral-video site YouTube.com, to draw attention to their over-the-air product.
"The (webisodes are) at the heart of our strategy," says Beth Comstock, who, as president of digital media and marketing development for NBC Universal, is in charge of driving the network's nontraditional ways of presenting TV-show content, whether it be via broadband, iTunes or cellphones. "Video has literally been liberated (from standard TV sets). It's proliferating, and it's been liberated. You can experience video content now in multiple platforms, in multiple ways ... throughout your life."
Playing catch-up
Although the idea of online webisodes sounds innovative, NBC -- and other broadcast networks -- are actually playing a game of catch-up, realizing the different ways the Internet can work to promote their shows. Networks can't really be blamed for being behind the curve, because the curve is moving so fast -- fast enough that Comstock's title didn't exist till December.
Last week, TV critics attended the annual July press tour in the Los Angeles area. At last year's tour, nobody was talking about TV-oriented digital media very much. TV networks had Web sites, but they used them mostly for star bios and still pictures. Now, many have broadband sites with Web-only content, as well as other ways of getting people to see their shows. It's almost like networks are doing the TiVo-ing for you, but the new technology is moving so quickly that, for some of us, it's a challenge to keep up.
"You should try running a business in it," says Larry Kramer, CBS' president of digital media . "It's kind of like the Internet having changed when people went from dial-up to broadband. Suddenly (people) were using the Internet more. ... They were visiting the Internet more and for longer periods, because they could. That kind of technology can have a profound impact on user habits. We're trying to stay up and understand user habits at a time when they're still changing."
Kramer's title is also new, although he's practically an old-timer in this area, having been appointed to his position in March 2005 after he sold MarketWatch, the financial Web site he founded. His duties include overseeing entertainment site CBS.com, as well as CBSNews.com and CBSSportsLine.com.
Pioneers
Around the time Kramer took his new post, cable channels MTV and VHI -- like CBS, under the Viacom umbrella -- introduced MTV Overdrive and VSpot, broadband sites that work in tandem with the cable networks' shows and, in what has become a novel twist for both music channels, made it easy to actually see music videos (that is, when the sites don't have the hang-ups and buffering that's so common with online viewing and listening).
Kramer says the network was able to learn some lessons from its corporate siblings. In May, it started Innertube, a broadband portion of its Web site with online-only series such as "Animate This" (cartoons that illustrate anecdotes told by CBS stars) and "Greek to Chic" (a makeover show that attempts to transform slovenly frat boys into sophisticated ladies' men). Other networks offer online content as well but haven't stamped a firm brand on their broadband sites the way CBS has with Innertube.
These sites, however, haven't had as much of an impact as the video iPod. When Apple Computer introduced the gadget in October, it also announced that it had made a deal with ABC that would allow the iTunes music store to sell episodes of "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" for $1.99 a piece. Other networks quickly followed suit: NBC made available episodes of "The Office" as well as some classic TV programs, and CBS has used iTunes to push "Survivor" and "CSI"
One of the questions skeptics raised about the video iPod was whether people would watch TV on a screen that's about 2 inches squared. But Kramer says minuscule screens such as iPods aren't replacing TVs, they're just providing more opportunities to watch. "We learned a lot from March Madness," he says, referring to the NCAA basketball tournament that airs on CBS. "We learned that if anybody could watch a show in front of a 50-inch screen, they were gonna. But if they couldn't, they would accept a lot (of tiny-screened options) in order to be able to see the action."