Staring next year NBC will be offering commercial-free on demand shows for .99 cents. This is in response to Walt Disney’s ABC offering it’s popular shows, Lost and Desperate Housewives, on iTunes for $1.99. But instead of downloading the video to your computer or iPod, like ABC offers, NBC viewers will have to have a DirecTV Plus DVR. And hours after the show airs the content will be pushed to your DVR.

Among the shows that will be offered through this service are, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: SVU, The Office, Surface, Monk and the best scripted show on TV (only because Firefly was cancelled), Battlestar Galactica.

Where the service falls flat is the requirement to be a DirecTV subscriber and to get a different DVR. If I had a DVR, I would have recorded it anyway, and just fast forwarded through the commercials. And now you have to have a device, separate from your computer, to purchase the videos. And you can’t transfer the shows to another device, such as a computer or iPod. Put all that together and you wonder whether they want this to fail.

NBC is also not alone in the incompetent decision making. CBS will also get into the mix with CSI, NCIS, Survivor and the Amazing Race. These shows will only be available to Comcast digital subscribers. And only in certain markets, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and suburbs of New York City.

In my opinion these restrictions will only serve to cause the IPTV movement to fail. And the service itself is not even worth .99 cents. Thanks for nothing NBC.