NBC Universal, which owns several cable channels including USA and SciFi, will be offering some sneak peeks, teasers and background webisodes on the web. All of this is part of shows winding down for the season or, in the case of cable, starting up. As part of promotion for the season starters, NBC Universal will offer some VOD and broadband freebies.
According to Interactive Television News, USA is conducting some heavy cross-platform promotion of Monk. Monk is due to begin its next season July 7th.
USA Network will provide exclusive 3-4 minute clips of the opening scenes of the upcoming episodes of "Monk," as well as a line-up of ancillary content that will include footage, webisodes and cast interviews (note: the channel plans to secure sponsorship for this content). In addition, NBCUC will provide its affiliates with TV and radio spots and print and Web ads to promote the shows.USA and SciFi will both air a special episode of The 4400, which has USA Network’s largest viewer community. This special is being offered on Yahoo! TV now and then on USA and SciFi on May 29th with regular television broadcast on those channels starting June 4th. The special investigates the mysteries of the first two seasons. This is all in preparation for the June 11th season premier.
USA plans to create a “Central Intelligence” area on its site that is devoted to the show. This will be a viewer forum that will include viewer blogs, podcasts, character specific areas, writer and producer blogs, behind the scenes clips and teasers of upcoming episodes. The main feature will be "Maia's Interactive Diary", which can be used to find clues to the show’s story lines.
I think that the seasons for shows will become a thing of the past. So many cable channels use the networks' rerun time to premier new and returning shows and the networks themselves have mid-season replacements that make the whole system seem out of date. This doesn’t even take into account all the web channels out there that can premier shows when they want. It seems to be one more thing that the networks need to adjust to.
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