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August 24, 2006

CBS innertube Expanding Content

CBS's innertube service is gaining some steam, after an announcement of several series that will be debuting their first four episodes of the season on the online video streaming platform. According to the new deals, each of these epsides will be available for a week following their broadcast on television, meaning that viewers will have the chance to watch it on innertube if they missed the show during the week before the next episode airs.

The deal is with 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Television, focusing on shows they are airing in the fall lineup on CBS. 20th Century Fox will be making the first four episodes of returning situation comedy How I Met Your Mother, returning drama The Unit and new law drama Shark available through innertube. Warner Brothers will be putting returning situation comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine up for streaming, as well as new comedy The Class and action series Smith.

Survivor and the new series Jericho will be making every episode available throug innertube after initial season, leaving these episodes up throughout the season, so that viewers can catch up on what they missed and still get involved with current episodes airing on CBS mid-season.

Several CBS series are already going to be made available, in this case with every episode throughout the season being available for four weeks after their initial CBS broadcast. All of the crime investigation shows--CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, NCIS, and Numb3rs--have this distribution deal.

The move will be used as a marketing maneuver, and all will be streamed for free as part of a promotion for each show to gain and retain viewers.

I've also written about CBS' digital distribution of the online reality show InTurn, which focuses on actors vying for the chance for a role on daytime soap opera As the World Turns.

These deals are further proof that many networks are working on solidifying their own broadband distribution platforms, as with the TNT DramaVision initiative I wrote about recently.

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