In a major online development, CBC has announced that it will begin broadcasting its entire daytime lineup via its corporate web site, CBS.com. The move will allow fans of its daytime lineup to watch episodes of The Young and the Restless, As the World Turns and Guiding Light from the comfort of their own personal computer.

"Making our daytime programming available online benefits our audience, the Network and our sponsors," said Barbara Bloom, Senior VP Daytime Programs. "It establishes more opportunities for our rabid fans to watch their favorite shows; creates a new platform to recruit potential new viewers to our daytime programming and it offers our advertisers another means to reach a valuable demographic audience."

Episodes will be available beginning at 600pm ET/300pm PT, immediately following the end of the daytime lineup on the West Coast. Though the episodes will be free to watch, they will not be available indefinitely: episodes will be available for one week before being deleted.

Fans of the fourth CBS soap, The Bold and the Beautiful, will no doubt be wondering why their show is not included in the online viewing schedule. A CBS spokesperson tells Soap Central that the network is in "conversations with the production company" of B&B and they hope to be able to add the half-hour soap to the online viewing menu in the future. As they say on the soaps, stay tuned.

This is not the first time that a network has announced a non-traditional way to watch the soaps.

The announcement comes about a week after NBC announced that episodes of Days of our Lives would be available for purchase through Apple's iTunes.

Guiding Light had been available at no cost via iTunes in an audio-only format. A show spokesperson assures fans that the podcast will continue.

The Young and the Restless also airs same-day repeats on the all Disney-owned soaps cable channel, SOAPnet. Fans of the CBS soap have been vocal about the channel's decision to move Y&R from its 700pm timeslot to the much later 1100pm spot. SOAPnet also airs repeats of All My Children, General Hospital, One Life to Live and DAYS.

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