Television: Wanna Buy a Slice of Sitcom?

Of course, you could envision a lot at this embryonic stage. "These are the first steps into new avenues," says Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Primetime Entertainment. "This is all a frontier for everybody." But whether the big new TV distribution medium ends up being iTunes or VOD or something else, the trend throughout entertainment is portability. Viewers can get pared-down mini-episodes of shows, including Desperate Housewives, on their cell phones through services including GoTV. Fox has created one-minute cell-phone offshoots of 24, and a mini-spin-off of Lost is forthcoming. Time Warner (TIME's parent company) will offer computer downloads of past Warner Bros. series like Kung Fu through AOL (free but with ads), while Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network will sell shows for $2.99 for a media player made by toy company Hasbro. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is even creating an Emmy for original video on nontraditional platforms such as mobile phones and computers.

When TV shows become something you order at whim from a cable box, or take on a plane, or carry in your pocket, what is TV? What is a network? After all, the networks, with their vast mid-century distribution systems, are in essence simply conduits for delivering programming from producers to viewers. Could the nets end up making their brands irrelevant? McPherson doubts it. "Whenever you're looking at airing your content in new places, you have to first consider the mother ship, which is the network," he says. Yes, but a mother ship can be part of a vast armada whose collective parts are just as important. You can see the point illustrated on Sci Fi network's Battlestar Galactica. Did you miss the show? You'll soon be able to order it on DirecTV.