If you’re like me, NBC’s decision to pull its programs from iTunes is going to seriously impact your Sci-Fi viewing habits this year. Everything from “Battlestar Galactica” to “Heroes,” including cool new shows from “Chuck” to “Journeyman” just became that much harder for us to get our grubby little paws on. (Sure, there’s broadcast television, but who uses that anymore?)

As we reported earlier, NBC released its pilots as free downloads through Amazon Unbox. Well, NBC has just announced a new service called “NBC Direct,” through which you and I will be able to download their programs directly from them. Just what that experience will be like is hinted to by the press release:

The first version of this new feature, which will begin beta testing in October, will allow users to download full length episodes for viewing on Windows based PCs. Each original episode will be licensed to users for viewing through “NBC Direct” for one week following broadcast and will then expire.

Bill Carter of the New York Times reveals a bit more, confirming some of our suspicions:

• Episodes will come with commercials that can’t be skipped.
• Users won’t be able to transfer programs to other computers or personal devices.
• The service uses a downloaded player, which means that Mac, Linux, and iPod Touch viewers are out of luck (at least for now).

Okay, we get it. If you don’t like the idea of shelling out two bucks per episode for “Bionic Woman,” then you can use NBC Direct to get the episode for free, as long as you don’t mind being forced to watch commercials and not being able to watch the episode outside of the one-week window. It’s a good emergency option, maybe.

Did you hear that? I swear I just heard the sound of Amazon’s stock jumping higher. Or was that Netflix?

NBC Direct begins beta testing in October, and should launch sometime in November.