Written by Liz Gannes

This has been the year TV networks finally embraced the web. As 2008 wraps up, nearly every broadcaster posts its shows online within half a day of first airing them on TV. And the audience for such programming is growing, especially among desirable younger demographics. Twelve percent of teens and 11 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds watch online TV at least once a week, respectively, as compared to 4 percent of 35- to 64-year-olds, according to Knowledge Networks.

But network strategies aren’t cut from the same cloth. For instance, ABC employs a dedicated premium player, for which users must download a plug-in, and mandates that even official partners send users to the player to watch its long-form content. Meanwhile, Hulu, a project from News Corp. and NBC Universal, has made freely embeddable content the norm, allowing online publishers large and small to publish snippets, full episodes and even movies from its library, and in some cases share ad revenue.


»newteevee.com/2008/11/23/network···xs-take/