Yet another media giant of jumping on the bandwagon and bringing their programming to the tubes. NBC announced today it would be joining the likes of ABC, CBS and Fox, offering their fall season prime time shows for free to web viewers.

NBC will launch their new high resolution player on October 1st, along with episodes of the "Law and Order: *.*", "The Office", "30 Rock", "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Kidnapped", among others. Following the airing of each premiere episode, viewers will also have the opportunity to somehow interact with the creators, or cast members via a "live blog". I hope live blog actually means live chat, and not character by character live transfer to a blog, heh. Either way, I'll be sure to tune in if Jim from The Office is participating.

The NBC shows will be delivered through the newly formed video aggregation service, NBBC or National Broadband Company.

Last year ABC began streaming their own full length ad-supported shows over the Internet. I was pretty excited about that, as it meant I could watch Lost while pretending to work. One negative thing about their service is that because the programs were so readily available, I got hooked on ... "Desperate Housewives". The negative part is that it was "Desperate Housewives". This season ABC is said to be adding new shows, none of which I have ever heard of, including "Six Degrees", "The Nine" and "The Knights of Prosperity". Knights you say?

In slightly related news, yesterday AT&T announced MobiTV, a $20 a month service delivering 20 streaming television stations right to your computer. I would much prefer turning my head slightly to the right and watching them all of my television.



(via Techcrunch)