However, TV executives are convinced that the Internet is an increasingly lucrative delivery system that will become a bigger part of their businesses, particularly as consumers who grew up using computers become the majority of the population.
"They are trying to figure out what consumers really want and how they can make money from that," said David Sanderson, head of private equity firm Bain & Co.'s global media practice.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, September 22, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 51 words Type of Material: Correction
Fox TV downloads: An article in the Business section on Friday about Apple Inc.'s plan to offer free downloads of premiere episodes of Fox Broadcasting programs described Bain & Co. as a private equity firm. It is a management consulting firm. Bain Capital, an unrelated company, is a private equity firm.
That's why there has been a flurry of deals and partnerships among the various media companies since Disney announced its landmark deal to offer ABC shows on iTunes nearly two years ago.
"It's not surprising that these networks are all casting around and winding up with different partners," said Josh Bernoff, principal analyst with Forrester Research. Internet portals and services such as iTunes "want their premium content, and so the networks might be playing one site off the other."
Until this week, Disney executives had believed that the popularity of such ABC shows as "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" and the high-quality cinema experience offered by their online media player would draw millions of viewers to the company's own website, at abc.com.
Thursday's deal with AOL, owned by Time Warner Inc., marked a shift in emphasis.
Albert Cheng, executive vice president of digital media for the Disney-ABC Television Group, said the partnership with AOL would provide ABC broader online distribution of such popular returning shows as "Lost" and new programs like "Dirty Sexy Money" and "Pushing Daisies" that premiere this fall. He downplayed the switch.
"All we're doing is exporting the ABC experience to another website," Cheng said. "ABC.com is a platform. That platform can be distributed anywhere.'
The Fox-Apple deal comes as the broadcast networks scramble to raise awareness of their shows for the TV season that begins Monday.
The networks have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in programming. If their new shows don't grab an audience quickly, they will be canceled.
"If they want their show to succeed, they've got to get it out in front of as many people as possible," Bernoff said. "The window is very short."
Neither Fox nor Apple would discuss the financial terms of their deal. As part of the pact, the premiere episode of a program will be available free for two weeks on the iTunes store.
