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The Philadelphia Inquirer

By Stacey Burling, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Mar. 31--A dozen popular TV programs from NBC Universal's network and cable channels will be available in May on Comcast Corp.'s video-on-demand service, the companies announced yesterday.

Select prime-time shows from NBC will cost 99 cents each and will be available any time after midnight the evening of their broadcast. Shows from the USA Network, Sci Fi Channel and Bravo cable channels, as well as late-night and daytime network programs, will be free.

The shows include The Office, Las Vegas, Monk, Battlestar Galactica, Celebrity Poker Showdown, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Late Night With Conan O'Brien and the Law and Order spin-offs Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent.

NBC Universal and Philadelphia-based Comcast will split revenue from the prime-time network shows, said Page Thompson, Comcast's general manager for video services.

Comcast reached a similar deal last year to offer four CBS shows -- NCIS, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Survivor and The Amazing Race -- on its video-on-demand service On Demand. NBC Universal also agreed last year to offer replays of some programs to satellite broadcaster DirecTV Inc.

"Clearly, the amount of content that we're offering continues to grow steadily, and it will continue to grow this year," Thompson said. "We're constantly talking to all the networks about additional content."

This year, On Demand not only will offer more programs now available only on traditional, or "linear," TV, but also will expand its array of exclusive games and shows, Thompson said. It also will make the programs easier to find.

Video-on-demand programming is part of a strategy to keep customers who pay for monthly service from downgrading to basic cable or switching to satellite TV. Such "churning" is down by 20 percent to 30 percent since On Demand was introduced late in 2003, he said.

On Demand offers more than 7,000 programs per month, including hundreds of movies and music videos. The company says people have used the service more than 2 billion times since 2004. The number of so-called "views" more than doubled between 2004 and 2005, said Jenni Moyer, director of corporate communications for Comcast.

On Demand is available to customers with digital cable, which costs about $9.95 a month more than basic cable. Of Comcast's 21.4 million cable customers, 45.6 percent have digital cable, Moyer said. More than 90 percent of On Demand's programs require no extra payment.

Interest in video-on-demand drove an increase in digital-cable purchases last year, she said. Comcast added 1.1 million digital-cable customers. Pay-per-view revenue grew 16 percent.

The NBC Universal programs will include commercials. Customers will be able to fast-forward through them, but skipping will not be an option, Moyer said.

While viewers can already record shows and watch them whenever they want for free, Thompson said he thought video-on-demand was attractive to people who missed favorite shows or discovered a new series mid-season and wanted to catch up on past episodes. It is also a way for people to find shows they would never have thought to record. "People have discovered shows on On Demand and then gone back to watch the show on linear TV," he said.

Contact staff writer Stacey Burling at 215-854-4944 or sburling@phillynews.com.

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