There’s nothing like paying someone else to do your thinking. ITV chairman Michael Grade has apparently decided to get Spectrum in. What’s the betting there’s a job at ITV on offer for whoever can come up with something that sounds like a plan? Buying up social networking sites and having them sign up for big-spending TV ad campaigns may be one way of doing it…

Meanwhile as Annelies van den Belt signs on as MD of Broadband, and ITV plans a free broadband portal here’s how the US network leader is using online:

CBS is not using the Internet simply to stream its new shows — it is also offering content from shows that is not available in the broadcast versions, and using the Web to stretch 22 episodes of a serialized program across a 35-week season. CBS decided not to air repeats of its new drama Jericho, but wanted to put the show on hiatus beginning in mid-December. So it created a Web site for the show on which it will offer original material that will move the storyline forward and engage the viewer until the show returns on air with first-run episodes. Poltrack notes that on the first two days after the fall finale of Jericho, traffic on the site increased tenfold.

Poltrack also says the market for advertising surrounding online streaming of TV shows is on the upswing, with demand exceeding supply for top-rated shows. “Analysts estimate the market to be in the $300 million–$400 million area today,” he says, adding they project growth to about $2 billion to $3 billion by 2010. “If this market materializes to the extent these analysts predict, it will add a second revenue stream for broadcasters.” [Mediaweek]