• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, January 15, 2007

With TV networks poised to embrace social networking, NBC Universal reportedly is working on a far-reaching plan to create social networking communities for its major TV shows.

News of the strategy comes via Techcrunch, which today linked to a cache file of a now-deleted post by Sab Kanaujia, vice president of digital innovation at NBC Digital Media. "NBCU is building a core social networking platform that will provide various tools and functionality on all our major properties to enable users to self-express and find, interact and share with other like-minded users," Kanaujia wrote on his blog. "There is no reason why users should go to/create 'The Office' community on MySpace when NBCU has the competitive advantage and the ability to provide a differentiated experience on NBC.com."

The post was removed last week, according to Techcrunch, though the reasons remain unknown.

Regardless, it's not a secret that TV networks hope to harness the power of social networking. Consider, Showtime's "The L Word" just launched a social networking site, OurChart.com. Additionally, the BBC said late last week it will launch social networks for shows like "Top Gear" and "BBC Good Food."

While a number of TV shows now have pages on MySpace, visitors to those pages obviously benefit Fox parent, News Corp. Clearly, the networks would prefer that social networking sites not end up helping out competitors.

The strategy makes sense--but only to a point. People don't have unlimited time for visiting TV show sites. Even passionate fans probably aren't prepared to do more than occasionally check out networking sites built around television programs.