NBC Promotes ‘Conviction’ on iTunes

The new NBC show ‘Conviction’ which won’t debut on TV until after the Olympics have finished is already available from the iTunes store — and it’s even free. I’ve said before that I would gladly pay to be able to download some of my favorite shows prior to them airing on TV so I think this is great. NBC seems to enjoy its experiment with iTunes so far and I hope this is successful as well. Let’s see more of the same from them and the other networks, by the way when is Fox going to cave in and join the party?

‘The Office’ saw an increase in viewers after the show was available on iTunes as did ‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ on ABC. NBC must believe ‘Conviction’ is going to be another winner or they wouldn’t have chosen it as the first attempt of this kind. Imagine if the show was bad and the negative reviews it got from those that downloaded it could kill the show before the pilot even aired, much more so than a few television critics’ reviews.

I think this would be an excellent way for networks to test which pilots they should pick to air for upcoming seasons. Throw them all on iTunes, let people download them and then see which ones float and which sink.