The way the Time Warner feature On Demand works isn’t very funny.

At least it isn’t very funny to local fans of some of the top-rated comedies in America and Western New York.

One blog reader noted that he missed an episode of ABC’s “Modern Family” because a speech by  President Obama changed the start time.

He figured he’d catch it On Demand. Then he discovered that the offerings of ABC On Demand, which TWC recently added, don’t include “Modern Family,” ABC’s highest-rated comedy.

ABC On Demand does offer almost all of its dramas locally, including “Grey’s Anatomy, “Private Practice,” “Desperate Housewives, “Castle,” “No Ordinary Family,” “Detroit 1-8-7” and newcomer “Off The Map.”

But the only comedy recently offered by ABC On Demand is Courteney Cox’s lower-rated “Cougar Town.”

The reader wanted me to investigate why there is room for “Cougar Town” and no room for “Modern Family.” So I called the local TWC spokesman.

He relayed that the cable company doesn’t decide what goes On Demand, the supplier (in this case ABC) decides.

ABC apparently has decided as of last week that we need more of “Cougar Town” than we need of “Modern Family” or “The Middle,” another ABC comedy that gets decent ratings and isn’t On Demand.

So then I decided to take a look last week at the CBS and NBC On Demand offerings .

Like ABC, CBS offers several dramas. They include all of the popular “CSIs” and the two versions of “NCIS,” “The Good Wife,” newcomers “Blue Bloods” and “The Defenders” and even old “Medium.”

The only comedies it offers are the highly-rated “Two and a Half Men” and “Rules of Engagement.”

Surprisingly, it didn’t offer two popular comedies – “The Big Bang Theory,” which beat “American Idol” in local ratings last week,” and “How I Met Your Mother”

Sensing a discrimination pattern, here I checked out NBC’s On Demand offerings and saw it carries four comedies – “The Office,” “30 Rock,” “Outsourced” and Community.”

Amusingly, NBC also offers two series that aren’t on the air now — “The Event” and the canceled “Undercovers.”

Of course, NBC’s ratings are so low that you can understand why it would put as many dramas and comedies as it could On Demand to try and grow the audience.

The question remains why doesn’t ABC put “Modern Family” On Demand and why doesn’t CBS carry “Big Bang” and “How I Met Your Mother” On Demand?

I have my theories.

They all come down to money.

But first it should be noted that viewers can look elsewhere to watch shows that they missed for free. They should check out the network websites – abc.com and cbs.com. They also should check out Hulu.com.

Of course, that primary benefits the more technological savvy viewers who may also be able to figure out more easily how to move the shows from the websites to their TVs.

And it has the added benefit of attracting more viewers to the network websites.

One of my wilder theories of why popular comedies aren’t On Demand concerns syndication. I’m  wondering if the companies that produce those shows either have made syndication rerun deals that prohibit them from being On Demand or think they can get better syndication deals in the future if they don’t put them On Demand. Remember, I called it a wild theory.

Or perhaps ABC and CBS believe they will get better rerun ratings if they don’t carry the popular comedies On Demand.

One might ask then why is “Two and a Half Men” carried locally On Demand.

I can only speculate that the Charlie Sheen has been in syndication longer than “Mother” and it may have made a different deal.

I could be way off-base, since the networks now seem to embrace the idea that any On Demand or website viewer it gets is one they wouldn’t have gotten.

There may be a much simpler and a more noble answer.

But experience teaches me that when it comes to silly TV decisions, money is usually behind it.

pergament@msn.com        

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