Beginning in October, NBC.com will unveil a new beta service called NBC Direct, which will allow users to download episodes of some of its TV shows. With the new service, NBC Digital Entertainment executive vice president Vivi Zigler said, “We are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consume their favorite entertainment.”

Despite these claims, however, the episodes from NBC Direct are not only ad-supported, but they expire within a week of the episode’s original on-air date, not a week after download. The list of shows available at launch includes Heroes, The Office, Life, Bionic Woman, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Offered initially via a Windows-only client, the NBC Direct beta service will eventually allow users to subscribe to shows for automatic download. The player will also contain filtering technology that NBC claims will prevent the playing of illicitly acquired copyrighted material, though the network makes no mention of exactly how this technology will work or whether it can identify and permit legitimate video obtained through legal means (for example, web video licensed under Creative Commons).

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