NBC Puts Nightly News Online

In a first for any of the major television networks, NBC announced that starting November 7 an online version of the day's nightly national newscast will be available online. At 10pm ET, a 21-minute version of NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams will be offered to visitors of MSNBC.com.

The program would be the same that aired earlier in the night, but without the commercial breaks. MSNBC.com would insert one commercial break during the show. NBC also plans to archive past newscasts for later viewing, however it was not specified as to how long previous shows would be kept on the site.

While ABC has previously offered portions of the World News Tonight program through its Web site and premium service, and CBS posted an eight-minute online version of its nightly news -- NBC is the first to provide a newscast in its entirety.

"This is the next logical step for 'Nightly' and NBC News," Steve Capus, the division's acting president, said in a statement. "We know that just as fast as technology is changing, people's lives are changing too, and they expect our newscasts to keep up with those changes. With this announcement we are doing just that."

MSNBC began to use news video on its Web site in the late 1990's, one of the first sites to do so. Clips from the Nightly News program and other NBC News shows, as well as simulcasts of live video during breaking news events are currently offered on MSNBC.com.

According to NBC, the site served 75 million of these videos during the month of September, and averages some 23 million unique visitors per month, either on par or more than CNN's Web site, and at least three times as many as ABCNews.com, CBSNews.com and FOXNews.com.

"This new service reflects the fact that the pace of our lives has changed," anchor Brian Williams said. "For all the loyal viewers who have made us the most-watched newscast in America, there are others who want to watch but can't. Now they'll be able to join us every night, when it's convenient for them."