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Daily Breeze

By David Bauder THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

In the fast-moving world of technology, Fox is the tortoise and CBS is the hare.

CBS has spent the past few months making deals to distribute the network's fare on the Internet, through on-demand services, on iPods, on cell phones.

Fox has been content to watch this activity from the sidelines.

Considering their images as TV networks, it's a fascinating reversal of type. In this tech race, CBS, with the oldest average audience, is the teenager careening wildly from experience to experience. Fox, home of "The Simpsons," is the conservative elder taking it all in.

CBS joined with Google Inc., to make copies of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and other shows available for rent online. David Letterman jokes and news clips can be played on cell phones.

The experimentation extends to creators. CBS is producing a soap opera in three-minute chunks exclusively for use on cell phones. Last week it announced a "micro-series," about a man trying to save his kidnapped wife, that will be shown on both the TV network and cell phones in installments of 60 seconds or less.

Peter Liguori, Fox entertainment president, said, "I don't think it's a wise idea to throw everything at the wall."

Fox's only major deal has been to make reruns of series like "24" and "Prison Break" available for 99 cents to DirecTV subscribers. Its cable sister, FX, will sell downloads of some of its series to people who have DirecTV digital video recorders before they actually air.

Fox and El Segundo-based DirecTV are owned by News Corp.

These new forms of distribution don't exactly help satellite and cable companies. They encourage people to bypass them. The satellite and cable companies are like network affiliates, old masters of the television business, uncertain where they stand in this new world.