NBC this week announced that they would offer select shows from their new Fall primetime television lineup online. This new service is called NBC Direct and seems to be their contingency plan in the wake of the collapse of their iTunes agreement.

I always wondered about online television viewing. Sure everyone will watch a five minute clip or a highlight, but will people regularly sit down and watch a full 30 min to 60 min tv show on a 13-17″ monitor? Though you and I may not be doing it, you better believe that the majority of high school and college students do most of their tv watching on a laptop or desktop.

After speaking with and watching several college students over the past month, I found that a large proportion of them “catch up” on tv shows online. It is what they are used to and it is something they have been doing since high school. It also allows them to multi task.

I may be old fashioned since I prefer my Tivo on a “real television”, but online tv and movie viewing is here to stay and is only going to get bigger.