ReplayTVBlog

NBC and DirecTV have announced a deal where DirecTV will offer NBC Prime Time TV Shows to DVR Subscribers On Demand only a few hours after the original airing on NBC. Viewers will be charged 99 cents for each show.

Included in the deal will be the following shows from NBC, USA, and SciFi Networks:

• The Office
• Monk
• Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
• Law and Order: Criminal Intent
• Surface
• Battlestar Galactica

One thing that jumps out at me from this announcement is this quote from NBC Cable President David Zaslav:

Consumers will be able to watch top NBC content on-demand — when they want, without commercials. It’s a huge sea change.

Did he say without commercials? Up to this point, the focus of the major TV Networks has been to stop viewers from fast forwarding or skipping commercials. Maybe this is a new direction from the networks — instead of an advertising based revenue model for TV shows, offer consumers the option to pay to view the show without commercials.

Who is this service for? If I have a DVR, why am I going to pay 99 cents to watch a TV show? Wouldn’t I just schedule the show to record on my DVR and watch it whenever I want? I guess if for some reason my DVR didn’t record Law and Order: Criminal Intent (power went out, I forgot to schedule it, cable went out, etc.) then I might consider buying it from and On Demand service like this. But how often does this happen? I don’t think this is enough for this venture to be a money maker for NBC.

If you have any other ideas about why I would want to use this service, let me know in the comments section below.

Technorati Tags: NBC, DirecTV, DVR

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