iTunes: Get One ‘Conviction’ Free

Apple's iTunes Music Store is offering the pilot episode of the latest Law & Order spinoff "Conviction" available for free download up to its broadcast premiere March 3.

Gotta admit: even a crufty old franchise like Law & Order can pull a smart marketing move once in a while. From now until its broadcast premiere on NBC March 3, the commercial-free pilot episode for the latest Law & Order spinoff series Conviction is available for free download from Apple’s iTunes Music Store. The episode can be viewed in Apple’s iTunes jukebox application and, of course, is compatible with Apple’s video-capable iPods.

The episode weighs in at just over 200 MB, so, needless to say, the downloadable-TV experience is still safely in the realm of the broadband-enabled. Two other free Conviction downloads are available: a free music video from The Gabe Dixon Bandand a three minute behind-the-scenes segment on the new drama.

The Conviction pilot is just the latest move in networks using Internet distribution to promote television programming. The soon-to-be-defunct UPN streamed the pilot for Everybody Hates Chris via Google Video in September 2005 while CBS streamed commercial-free episodes of its sitcoms Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother via Yahoo TV in December 2005.