In another sign of the internet's rise as the medium people prefer to consume entertainment, it's now rumored that Saturday Night Live" Rehearsals May Be Web-cast on Friday night LIVE.

"Sometimes it's a lot more interesting than the show,'' Kliavkoff joked, referring to the closed-circuit footage of ''SNL's'' Friday dry runs viewed at NBC headquarters. “It's something we watch on the cameras at 30 Rock.''

Opening the window to “SNL'' rehearsals might represent a case of art imitating art imitating art yet again at NBC, which already has mined behind-the-scenes happenings at the sketch comedy franchise as comic catnip for the Tina Fey half-hour series “30 Rock'' and dramatic grist for Aaron Sorkin's drama ''Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.''

The truth is rapidly becoming clear - the Internet is the new testing ground for talent.

"…Much of the panel's discussion centered on whether the emergence of user-generated content will become an art form unto itself or just a way for establishment media to skim the cream of the crop. “We see the Internet as our new A&R,'' Kliavkoff said, referring to the music industry term for talent scouting. “We're out there scouting. The good stuff bubbles up to the top.''

For me, I'd look at this possibility of broadcasting SNL rehearsals on Friday night as multi channel marketing AND community building - both of which are becoming much more important as we move further into the Digital Age (or whatever you want to call the time we live in now).

And certainly - you can learn a lot more about the audience who will watch SNL on Saturday night if you can get the demographics of the Online Streaming Video Downloads on Friday night (I imagine Comscore or HitWise can provide these statistics, each in their own way).