• by Shankar Gupta , June 3, 2005

In hopes that television viewers aren't getting enough of "Desperate Housewives" and "The Apprentice," major Internet companies like Yahoo!, MSN, and CNET increasingly are offering TV-related content.

The latest example happened Thursday, when CNET launched TV.com, which will be a clearinghouse for television reviews, episode guides, and trivia. Last month, MSN announced a deal with Mark Burnett Productions to create a site and host extra Web-exclusive content for his new reality show "Rock Star," and Yahoo! has a similar relationship with the reality-TV impresario for "The Apprentice" and "The Contender."

CNET's TV.com aims to create an online community for TV watchers to gather, comment on, and create content about their favorite programs. Vince Broady, CNET's senior vice president for games and entertainment, said that such a site can help deliver an audience for advertisers, creating a common place where such consumers can gather and be exposed to ads--even if they otherwise watch shows entirely on DVD or DVR, bypassing the advertising. "The communal nature of TV is starting to break down," he said. "There's no obvious place for fans of TV to get together."

The information on the site, which will also include character and actor bios, all will be user-generated. CNET also plans to create a tracking system similar to the one employed at Gamespot.com, which allows the company to track nearly every aspect of a user's visit to the site--what they view, download, and search for.

By creating this forum for TV, CNET hopes to capture the active, engaged TV-watchers and provide another window for marketers to reach and study them. "CNET is very much focused on the most passionate and engaged users," Broady said. "And that's what marketers are interested in today: 'Help me understand my target audience.'"

A Forrester study, commissioned by Yahoo! and Mediaedge:cia and released in April, suggests that broadband Internet users view the Web as a companion to television, using it to look up information about their favorite shows and the ads that appear on them. The report said that 34 percent of those surveyed look up Web sites mentioned on TV ads, and 11 percent of those surveyed go online to learn about characters on a show.

"Broadband really transformed users' experiences," said Beth-Ann Eason, vice president-category development at Yahoo!, when the study was released. "When you have broadband, you're more likely to pursue a greater depth of knowledge around a particular topic."

Yahoo!'s deal with Mark Burnett Productions puts that extra knowledge at their users' disposal, hosting extra, Web-only videos and information about the "The Apprentice," including extended versions of highlighted moments from each week's show; "Pick-Em" fantasy games; mobile content for phones; exclusive photos and three-dimensional virtual tours of the "Apprentice" suites and Trump's boardroom; original editorial written by former "Apprentice" candidates; personal photo albums; blogs from "Apprentice" participants; the episodes; and the contestants.