• by Wayne Friedman , November 4, 2005

While the Internet and other broadband platforms offer up the future for TV programming, current TV program deals that put select episodes on the Internet are all about sampling and marketing of mostly unproven or lackluster TV shows.

This season, WB's "Supernatural," UPN's "Everybody Hates Chris," and just this week, NBC's "NBC Nightly News" and CBS' "Threshold" have made news by offering up limited previews or reruns of episodes on major Web sites.

TV analysts say all these TV shows have one thing in common--none are big-name TV shows like "American Idol" or "CSI." All are programs that are new or struggling, and looking to increase sampling, with the prime goal of driving viewers back to TV.

But down the road, this activity naturally brings up a host of issues--such as going around traditional distribution-point partners--TV stations.

"Networks are dancing around--tasting the edges," said Harold Vogel, president of Vogel Capital Management, a New York-based venture capital firm. "Management doesn't have a choice. They don't want to slice their own throats [with their affiliates]. But they don't want competitors to slice their throats either."

Virtually none of these shows carry TV advertising sold by the networks. That would have network affiliates up in arms, if the WB were looking to profit from these specific moves.

If networks were to sell advertising for these Internet versions of shows, affiliates would see this as a hostile move. As long as the networks don't sell advertising, this current Internet activity only acts as a pure marketing tool--to get viewers to sample shows on TV airwaves. That's something that benefits TV affiliates and networks.

But down the line, if more complete episodes run on the Internet, both advertisers and affiliates will have issues.

"If I'm an affiliate or an advertiser and TV shows become less unique [by running on the Internet], then I'm going to be disappointed," said Bill Carroll, vp and director of programming for Katz Television Group.

The good news for affiliates is that these specific episodes aren't a long-term threat. "A low-rated show is a low-rated show," said Craig Leddy, a TV and technology analyst for New York-based research company Points North Group. "Just because you throw it on alternative platforms doesn't mean people are going to watch, either online or on TV."

But TV affiliates are concerned about some moves. For instance, ABC affiliates recently complained to ABC network executives that they weren't consulted when it came to Walt Disney Co.'s decision to offer next-day episodes of "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" through Apple's iTunes Music store.

No matter what the current business environment may appear to be with TV affiliates, network executives don't always ignore them when it comes to programming decisions. One example is Walt Disney-owned cable network, SoapNet.

Carroll says affiliate stations are financial partners in the SoapNet cable network. ABC's daytime soaps run on SoapNet after the last West Coast network airing. While this doesn't harm TV stations' daytime exclusivity, the same-day programming window is enough to cause some financial harm--possibly resulting in lower advertising sales of TV stations' daytime airings.

The WB has been the only network to run episodes of shows on the Internet before their initial TV airings. When the WB did this for the first time last season with the premiere episode of "Jack & Bobby" running on Yahoo!, affiliates were naturally skittish.

But now in year two, affiliates are more amenable. Brad Terrell, executive vp of network communications for the WB, says these efforts are working. Although "Jack & Bobby" didn't last into this season, its TV premiere earned the highest viewership numbers of any episode of the series--which, Terrell says, speaks to the success of the Internet programming stunt.

This year, "Supernatural" has a better chance of succeeding--it has been virtually consistent since its TV premiere, earning healthy Nielsen Media Research 3.0 ratings for women 18-34 and 2.2 ratings for men 18-34.