NBC Gets It

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the best new show of the Season -- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The episodes that followed the premiere haven't been quite as good, but that's to be expected. They have, however, been excellent.

Of course, I don't watch live TV. TiVo changed my life. But Studio 60 is on opposite one of the CSIs or something so TiVo doesn't record it. But I still haven't missed an episode because NBC gets it.

This year, they have a site called Rewind. Here you can watch 2 minute clips of most programs, or in the case of Studio 60 and other select shows, you can watch the previous week's episode in its entirety. After Studio 60 airs, I go here within the next week and watch it on line through streaming video. As long as I have a broadband connection, I can keep up with my favorite shows.

NBC lets me watch the programs when I want. But they're not just doing this for my convenience. They break each show into segments that align with the commercial breaks for the on air version. Before each segment begins, I have to watch a 30 second commercial that I cannot fast forward through. I've watched a bunch of ads for the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck. In past weeks, the sponsor was AT&T.

Think back to the last live TV program you watched. Who was the primary sponsor? Can you remember the primary sponsor from several weeks back? With Studio 60 and NBC.com, I can.

As we've seen with The Apprentice, networks are trying to find creative ways to get ads to the TiVo generation. In Donald Trump's show, it by making the game about the advertised product. On Rewind, NBC takes a more traditional approach.

They show one commercial before each segment, and there is a static ad next to the video window.

So we have a win-win-win situation here. I'm watching the program when I want to. NBC is showing me the commercial. And after the video, since it wasn't drowned out by competing ads, I remember Toyota's ad.

Nice job, NBC.