Source : Chicago Tribune

It seems generally accepted that the future of broadcast television is only partly in broadcasting. The message, however, hasn't gotten to everyone. Not yet, at least.

A recent survey CBS conducted found that only 56 percent of viewers interviewed knew network TV programs were available on the Internet.

Of those who knew about online streaming, 46 percent had streamed at least one program. But, more encouraging, among those who didn't know they could watch shows on the Web, 62 percent indicated they would watch at least one of the 33 available programs online in the future.

"It is clear that the potential for network program distribution over the Internet is just beginning to be tapped," CBS' report said.

This notion of untapped potential seems to be driving a good many of CBS' decisions of late.

Think of CBS' latest moves as a sort of "No Dollar Left Behind" initiative.

Recent days have seen CBS announce plans for a new licensing and merchandising unit called CBS Consumer Products and to establish a separate unit for its DVD business to be called CBS Home Entertainment.

It also has created the CBS Sports Properties Group to sell the CBS Sports brand and create brand extensions for corporate clients and sponsors.

As for the Internet, the network is encouraged to have found that 53 percent of those who checked out new CBS series online in advance of their fall broadcast debuts became regular viewers of those shows. So the network, according to trade paper Broadcasting & Cable, plans to offer more and more Internet previews of its programs.

The revelation that this is a vital part of how CBS intends to get its shows sampled is indicative of just how much the television business is changing and has changed.

Granted, anyone who has enough interest in a prospective series to seek it out online before its air date is probably more motivated than most to stick with, say, "The Class" or "Jericho."

But the idea that a television network can just trot out its shows each fall, and viewers will go through the local listings in TV Guide before premiere week with a highlighter so they can make their plans to watch the new shows, is so 20th Century.

It's as quaint as picking up TV Guide for local listings, which it no longer publishes and instead provides online.

Repeated viewing and easy sampling afforded by various on-demand formats, including online streaming, video-on-demand, downloads, reruns or the selected scene on YouTube.com and other sites have become part of all networks' playbooks.

The mass exposure broadcast TV networks afford may remain the primary way to expose an audience to their wares, building demand for, say, the quickie DVD Fox is putting out of this season's first four hours of "24." But with so many options for the audience's time, no one can afford to rely on one method of reaching viewers.

People who are tapped into digital media seem to revel in being able to watch what they want, when they want it.

Empowerment is an easy sale. But you have to let your audience know it's available.

© Chicago Tribune