• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 25, 2006

Continuing its pattern of harnessing online properties to promote TV shows, News Corp. will stream the fourth season premiere of "The O.C." on MySpace and 24 local TV Web sites starting Thursday, one week before the show's broadcast date.

Fox also will place the second and third shows of "The O.C." on the Web one week before their air dates. All three shows will remain online for a week.

The move marks the first time Fox Broadcasting has streamed prime-time shows in their entirety before their air dates, but not the first time Fox has placed TV shows online. Earlier this month, when Fox pre-empted prime-time programming for the Major League Baseball games, the network placed a roster of re-runs on MySpace and local affiliate Web sites.

Shows in that initiative included "Bones," "Prison Break," "Standoff," "Vanished," "Justice," "Talk Show With Spike Feresten," "'Til Death," and "The Loop," while sponsors included Toyota, Burger King and Lionsgate Films.

News Corp. in August launched "Fox on Demand," which involved streaming ad-supported episodes of "Prison Break," "Bones," "Stacked," "The Loop," and "American Dad" to nine local Fox Web sites.

This September, Fox put a seven-minute clip from "The Simpsons" on MySpace and other sites in the three days leading up to the show's season premiere. In that time, the clip garnered 1.4 million streams, with 80 percent of MySpace users watching five full minutes of the video.