My primary means for surviving the writers strike has been to load up my home theater PC DVR with recorded shows to watch through Spring and Summer 2008. Additionally, I’ll continue renting movies from Netflix and catch up on movies and TV shows that I missed out on before. While I’m at it, I’ll also spend some time outside.

Still, if I were a TV Network exec and trying to find several months of worthwhile programming, here’s what I’d do while waiting out writers strike. It’s actually a pretty easy solution and could revive some decent shows that deserved to be saved.

• Firefly - Re-run the Firefly television episodes in their originally intended order and conclude with the Firefly Serenity movie. Promote the heck out of it and bring in tons of viewers who never saw it the first time. If Firefly gets decent rating, FOX could bring it back with new shows once the strike has ended for an easy hit TV show.
• Jericho - With the new, second season of Jericho coming soon, CBS should air the first season once more in prime-time and promote it in a big way. They did this during the summer, but it was right around July 4th when many potential viewers were not watching television. Run it again now to get the attention it deserves and bring in new viewers ready to make the second season of Jericho a success.
• Heroes - Show Heroes from the beginning, promote it, and bring in new viewers while audiences are desperate for quality content (read: not reality TV).

Bottom line is that networks can air quality re-runs and sufficiently promote them as must-watch “classics” - which could be supplemented with behind the scenes special clips and interviews.

What other shows should the networks resurrect for reruns? I’m thinking shows that have either been canceled and/or haven’t received the attention they deserved their first go-around. Also, how are you planning to deal with the writers strike fallout?

Check out more of Brent’s reflections on tech, gadgets, software and media at Brent Evans Geek Tonic.

According to a few recent stories, including this write-up from Last100, some studios may be intentionally seeding content onto BitTorrent:

While the Motion Picture Association of America is uploading fake torrents of movies to discourage torrent use, mainstream television show producers are engaging in flirtatious trials with torrents as a viable new way to promote their programs and reach new audiences. Broadcasters aren’t posting their shows directly on PirateBay yet, but they are talking informally and giving copies of shows to a friend of a friend who is unaffiliated with the company to make a torrent. The Weeds show producer Jenji Kohan hinted at both her approval of the leaks and the reasons behind them [...]

Unlike, music and movies which have historically relied on the sale of physical media, most television shows are disposable and don’t end up in syndication or as DVDs on our shelves. So, it’s a reasonable strategy to give away episodes as a means to draw in new viewers - whether the giving be done on a website or via BitTorrent. Those services have made a viewer out of me — Torrents for Dexter led to a Showtime subscription (good for them and Comcast) and catching up with torrents of Traveler led me to watch the show real-time with commercials. (Though the mini-series non-finale was BS, and I want all my time back.) Not to mention, if you’ve been keeping up with ZNF lately you know, I’m now a Burn Notice fan thanks to web-streaming via Hulu and awaiting Season 2 - which I’ll watch live.

Canadians looking for alternative ways to consume their media are having a pretty good month… Though much later than their southern US neighbors, in the last three weeks TiVo, Xbox 360 movie downloads, and now iTunes television downloads have been made available. iTunes TV purchases run $1.99 CAD which closely mirrors the US dollar. (For comparison, not everyone is pleased with Microsoft’s Points exchange rate.)

In other digital TV news, dedicated video download STB Vudu ($399) is also offering show purchases for $1.99 USD. However, until they significantly drop that hardware fee they won’t have many takers.

iPhone Canada by Rogers

More news came out today on both Hulu and NBC. First, Last100 picked up on a new site called OPENhulu which allows anyone to access Hulu content. No beta invite required. Read all the details on the Last100 post, or just go straight to the site and start watching shows. Only some of the Hulu content is up so far, but it’s a good start, and genius Matt Schlicht promises to keep adding. (Please don’t sue him, Hulu…)

Meanwhile, while NBC’s joint Hulu venture with News Corp is going well, other aspects of NBC’s business are not. Word has it that NBC is writing refund checks to its advertisers for missing ratings guarantees. Ouch. Remember when NBC was must-see TV? Dave and I compared notes and he says he’s still watching 30 Rock and Journeyman on the network, while I’m hanging on to Chuck and Scrubs. I guess there’s not a whole lot else on NBC worth watching. I was going to try out Heroes, but after hearing that season two hasn’t been that great, I’m not sure I’m willing to invest the effort.

Finally, back in the good news column, several folks wrote today about NBC starting to offer content through SanDisk’s Fanfare service as of this January. The content will be DRM-protected of course, but you’ll be able to watch it on a PC or using one of SanDisk’s TakeTV USB gadgets.

Two good news items and one bad for NBC? We’ll call it a good day.

(Thanks, Todd!)

Due to the writers strike, I’ve been keeping a running tab at how many television episodes remain and it’s beginning to look pretty grim. Here’s a rundown of the casualties and where a few favorite television shows stand:

Season Canceled
24 was set to premier in January 2008. Fox wanted to air all 24 episodes without interruption, and since they haven’t all been filmed, there’ll be no 24 this winter.

Zero Episodes Remain
Heroes, Desperate Housewives, Big Bang Theory, Bionic Woman, The Family Guy, The Office, Reaper, Rules of Engagement, Two and a Half Men

1 Episode Remains
Chuck, Criminal Minds, Girlfriends, Life, Pushing Daisies, Shark

2 Episodes Remain
Back to You, Dirty Sexy Money, Grey’s Anatomy, K-Ville, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Moonlight, My Name is Earl, Private Practice

3 Episodes Remain
Bones, Brothers and Sisters, CSI, Dirt, House, Journeyman, Numbers

For a complete listing of remaining shows, including air dates and information on other shows premiering in 2008, check out the frequently updated Brent Evans Geek Tonic: How Many TV Shows Remain.

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs:

• Motorola and Marriott Link Up: Connected Home 2 Go
• CEO Roberts on Comcast: Connected Home 2 Go
• Marketing Fiber to the Home (RFOG): Connected Home 2 Go
• Salvaging Fox Business News’ Online Reputation: Davis Freeberg

The Discovery Channel and Discovery Communications have been on a tear lately. First there’s the company’s original programming, including the continued success of shows like MythBusters and Dirty Jobs (with Mike Rowe, target of many a man-crush). Then there’s the fact that Discovery is the poster child for HDTV, particularly with shows like the miniseries Planet Earth and more Discovery HD content available all the time.

Now it turns out that Discovery Communications is also a pro at multi-platform distribution. According to Rentrak (via Multichannel), video-on-demand access of Discovery programming grew 101% between September 2006 and September 2007. Most of the accessed programming was short-form, showing that Discovery can be flexible with its content, and much of it also was information-based in the areas of military, health and science.

And what about the Web? Discovery’s been successful there too with both tie-ins to product sales and new content initiatives like the cooperative effort with TreeHugger to produce Planet Green.

I liken Discovery to ESPN with its cross-platform success. Few other networks seem to have mastered the new world of media as well.