Uncut TV may be headed for your handheld

At the star-studded Entertainment Gathering conference in Los Angeles earlier this year, veteran TV producer Dick Wolf ("Law and Order") called the video iPod a "game changer" that could force the industry to rethink the way it creates shows. If this week's developments are any indication, those changes may be well under way.

The download part of the equation is already well established, as NBC proved yesterday by making "Scrubs" available on Apple's iTunes service. Then, on the same day, the WB said it would offer an "uncut" version of "The Bedford Diaries" on the network's Web site. It is this move that's more significant to Wolf's point.

To wit: If studios are willing to tailor content for specific media, will versions of TV shows be produced specifically for portable devices? Programming produced for the mobile market could affect everything from length of time to scenes shot for viewing on a phone-size screen--not to mention the opportunity for racier material.

Blog community response:

"The decision to release an uncut version of a TV show online could potentially be a change in which networks broadcast programs. With the fear of fines from the F.C.C. increasing this could be an emerging trend among all networks as they look for ways to reach increasingly fickle viewers who don??t want to be restricted by the time and place they can watch TV."
--latest thing

"Audiences have already left commercial television in droves for cable and pay TV; TiVo and iPod have changed how and when we watch TV; now add Internet streaming--sans commercials--to the mix. Without commercial sponsorship, shows won't get made, thus affecting what gets programmed and the overall quality of network TV."
--Mere Words

"Controversy will immediately drive viewers who want to find the banned episodes to the Comedy Central site and the WB site, and to blogs and other social media sites that discuss the and carry the videos. Advertisers who are not afraid of controversy will be smart to enjoy the traffic spike."
--B.L. Ochman's weblog