I watched Heroes1 on TiVo while I ate lunch today. This is the first time I watched the show on a TV.
I kept hearing friends talk about the show, so I caught up on the previous episodes on the computer via NBC’s streaming video2 over the last few weeks.
I think offering the shows like this is a really smart move on NBC’s part – for 2 reasons:
- I was easily able to catch up with the show and will likely continue to watch. If this hadn’t been available, I would have just waited for it on DVD.
- I actually had to wait for the commercials to play in their entirety with the streaming video. On TiVo, I just zap through them.
NBC seems to be jumping out ahead of the other networks when it comes to convergence between the web and traditional TV.
I am a Marvel Comics junkie so I have seen every episode of Heroes since the beginning and I’ve DVR’d most of them and watched them several times. When Hiro made his reference to Kitty Pryde early on in the show, my heart swelled a little.
I am very glad that NBC is embracing digital media the way they are because it seems as though the other networks don’t have the foggiest idea of how to use it to get people hooked on the shows. The only thing I can think of is that NBC must be listening to what the public wants. No one wants to pay 2 bucks to watch one episode of a show downloaded from some media service just because they got a flat tire on the way home from work or there was a power outage in their area! Give people a chance to catch up on the web and spoon feed them ads. It seems like a fair trade-off to me.
I am curious as to how fast NBC will get Heroes Season 1 into a DVD set. The show is a monster hit and will have an enormous following in Sci-Fi and Fantasy fans (who are notoriously loyal and big on buying DVDs). I’d say anything more than 45 days after the airing of the last episode of season 1 is too much of a wait for me.
I did the same thing with Ugly Betty on ABC. I would watch it when I had to late work at the office, mostly for something to watch. But I got hooked and now watch it over the air.
I can’t say I did this for Heroes, but it was the same situation for me with Studio 60. Being able to watch the six episodes I had missed online has made me a loyal viewer.
On a sidenote, I’m in Canada, so NBC.com doesn’t let me watch online, but surprisingly, the Canadian network (CTV) that picked it up here is making them available online as well. I’ve been meaning to send a letter to NBC to thank them for their progressive thinking in this — especially with making it available online to “foreign” markets.
I tip my had to you, NBC. 🙂
Fox has been doing this also but they are using myspace as their medium. I was able to catchup on the Fox Shows that i watch that i had missed.