The web can be your friend, it can promote and augment your brand. And using it to show clips and promote series in order to bring viewers to its shows can be an effective strategy. It supports their distribution partners - cable, telco, and satellite - and pushes viewership to improve its ratings. Time Warner recognizes that You Tube, the largest on-line video service, can be a partner, not a foe. it also provides Time Warner the opportunity to put full length episodes on-line, but only through authentication processes so that it is used to retain subscription services, not replace them. "The deal will place short clips from CNN, the Cartoon Network and Adult Swim animated shows, TNT’s hit dramas and Warner Brothers Television productions like “Gossip Girl” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on YouTube."
And that is the biggest knock on Hulu and TV.com who may be bringing convenience to viewers who want to watch full length shows on the web, but also causing these same viewers to disconnect their cable subscription services thereby reducing subscriber revenue. In other words, Hulu and TV.com's full length episodes ultimately undermine the subscription model for cable and the license fees that networks receive each month; You Tube's short form content from networks ultimately promotes shows and uses highlights to entice viewers to go to their cable subscriber for the full show.
