Fresh from feuding with Apple’s iTunes Store, NBC Universal announced Wednesday that it would allow many of its hit shows to be downloaded via personal computer.
The new “NBC Direct” makes shows available for download the day they’re broadcast. Computer users can watch the programming over a seven-day period. After that, the files self-destruct, much like the short-lived disposable DVD rental scheme of a few years back.
“Kind of like ‘Mission: Impossible,’ only I don’t think there would be any explosion and smoke,” NBC Universal Television Group chieftain Jeff Gaspin told the New York Times.
Consumers can have the shows sent to them. They will contain ads that can’t be fast-forwarded past. NBC plans to offer downloads for pay next year, as it did via iTunes. The network recently put its new shows’ pilots on Amazon’s Unbox for free.
Service is set to roll out in October and November.
Sorry Mac users, you’ll have to wait in line — for the foreseeable, this deal is PC-Windows only.
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