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CBS streams to promote

Candace Lombardi
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
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Candace Lombardi

CBS announced on Wednesday that it will stream commercial-free versions of three of its shows on Google Video.

"Smith," starring Ray Liotta, "The New Adventures of Old Christine," starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and "The Class" are available now for free on Google Video through Sept. 18.

CBS is also offering the first four episodes of each show for free on Innertube, CBS's broadband channel. Each of these free episodes will be available for one week after the TV broadcast. "How I Met Your Mother," "The Unit" and "Shark" are also included in the Innertube promotion.

Many of the TV networks, which already offer fee download options for shows, are trying these alternative promotional tactics to lure viewers.

On Monday, AOL announced that it would stream pilot episodes of NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" and "Twenty Good Years" the week before their network premieres. NBC is also releasing some of its shows on its own Web site.