Major US TV network NBC puts free programming on the web

Beginning in October, the new service called NBC Direct, www.nbcdirect.com, will offer ad-supported TV shows that viewers can download for one week after which time built-in DRM will expire the show’s license.

NBC will premier the beta project with popular US TV shows such as "Heroes," "The Office," "Life," "Bionic Woman," "30 Rock," "Friday Night Lights," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

Eventually users will be able to subscribe to their favorite shows that will then be automatically downloaded to their PCs for TiVo-style later viewing.

According to a report by the Associated Press, NBC is also planning to offer large HDTV files for faster peer-to-peer downloading through a “software player with filtering technology” that will manage copyrights and ostensibly prevent piracy.