NBC to flood VOD with pilots

Don Day August 18th, 2007

NBC inked a series of deals to make its fall pilots available for free on a bunch of VOD systems: Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, Cox - and versions on Dish and DirecTV. CBS, CW and Fox aren’t planning to follow suit, but in past years have put the product online. We’re getting millions and millions of dollars worth of advertising impressions,” NBC’s Henry Ahn told Variety. While four of the five major English-language networks are getting the pilots out ahead of time - either on-air or online… one isn’t: ABC. The network has kept a “tight lid” on its pilots, outside of a few public screenings.