The television broadcasters may be learning to respect their audience.

CBS, after cancelling Smith after only three episodes, is releasing four unseen episodes for online distribution. Producers of the show are also being given the chance to post a written synopsis of how the story was going to be wrapped up.

It doesn’t hurt that advances in broadband (that should be a title for something) mean that networks can distribute online. They’ve already paid for the four unaired episodes, right? Why not try and get something out of them? “Hell, put ‘em online!”

It’s my topic of the week in this week’s Channel Changer, which you can read about over at mytelus.com.