Eight years on, NBC's online vision becomes a reality.

IN A NUTSHELL

In 1999, at the height of the dot-com boom, NBC launched NBCi.com, a portal that tried to be all things to all people (and lost millions upon millions of dollars in the process). But now, thanks to ubiquitous broadband, nbc.com focuses on delivering its TV content over the Web to promote its shows and increase viewership. It's the clear winner among the Big Four networks' Web properties.

BRAVO

Thank you, NBC.com powers-that-be, for not auto-playing anything on your home page! Unlike FOX and ABC's websites, which start playing random promo videos as soon as the pages load, NBC.com's homepage is blissfully silent. The Flash promo box below the top navigation also hosts fly-out elements from the top nav. Well done!

NBC.com offers full-length episodes of certain shows — you can currently stream 12 of their 48 prime-time shows (including the malapropism-laden 2007 Miss Teen USA Pageant). Fans of Heroes and Law & Order are out of luck, but rejoice, fans of Passions and 30 Rock! The quality is excellent, and the predominantly black pages are conducive to video viewing.

TRY AGAIN

Want to download a single episode of Heroes? You can — if you're in the United States and running Internet Explorer on a PC. In Canada on a Mac running Safari? You're outta luck. We assume the U.S. part has something to do with broadcast rights, but there's really no excuse for downloads to be platform- or browser-specific.

The top nav could also use some rejiggering. Clicking on "News" takes you to the "News & Sports" page, while clicking on "Sports" takes you to NBCSports.com. If I'm clicking "News," I'm probably not interested in NBC's Heads-Up Poker Championship. The "For Fans" section is also a bit of a cop-out. It seems to be a catch-all for everything that didn't fit in elsewhere.

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To learn more about what the networks are doing to retain viewers, read our feature article.