march 20, 2006
Next month, ABC will begin streaming some of their programming online -- the shows will be available to stream eight hours after they have been broadcast and they will contain commericials. This is one great idea and I am surprised that it hasn't come around earlier. AOL's In2TV is cool and all, but it is all old TV. Here with ABC, we'll be getting the latest broadcasts online and hopefully free since they are being shown with commercials. The selling of shows on iTunes? That is cool also, but sometimes when I miss a show, I just want to watch it, not own it -- and if it means watching it online through a stream with commercials, that's fine.
I hope this move by ABC to start repurposing their original broadcast material for streaming use will catch on with other networks -- especially FOX, FX and SciFi since they have programming that I like ("24", "The Shield", and "Battlestar Galactica"). What ABC understands, I hope, is that with putting programming online in a stream, they can be brilliant or stupid. The brilliant move would be for them to insert appropriate (aka "targetted") ads into the commercial slots -- depending on the other shows that the person has watched, the location, the age, and other variables (most of it gathered at registration).
ABC is showing that the other networks are the ones that are truly lost in this digital age. ABC was the first to release their programming to iTunes and now they are the first to start streaming programming in this fashion. They have really jumped into the digital age, where is everyone else?
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