ABC to Offer Free Streams of TV Shows Also Sold via iTunes

[dbhays]

ABC will start to offer LOST and Desperate Housewives for free, being supported by advertisers (not on itunes?) Link

I wonder if this will start to effect sales on itunes? I know I will download them for free, even if it means a few commercials.


Update: The service will be launched on a new venture called My ABC. Link

[nbs2]

At the risk of being incredibly wrong and looking quite the fool - if they are not available on iTunes, I would expect a huge drop in the cashe of iTMS video sales. Most TV shows I watch once and that's good enough. If I can get it for free and on demand, I have no reason to watch it on my TV and I have no reason to pay for it. The only time I think I might want to keep a show I'd save money and buy the entire season. The only type of show that I can think of that would remain ideal for the iTMS format is the Hitchcock Presents format where each show is fully self contained - no character or story overlap.

That being said, I hope I'm wrong - maybe it will be on iTMS or at the least the Store will remain strong.

[paddy]

Isnt Jobs on the Disney board of directors now?? If yes wouldnt this be a major conflict of interest for him?

[student_trap]

it may sound like an obvious question but... will you be able to fast forward through the adds? or will it be like it is on some dvd's where you have to watch all the promotional stuff

[M. Malone]

Originally Posted by student_trap

it may sound like an obvious question but... will you be able to fast forward through the adds? or will it be like it is on some dvd's where you have to watch all the promotional stuff

you can fast forward, but not the commercials:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/10/news...ex.htm?cnn=yes

[emw]

Originally Posted by Jericho2550

you can fast forward, but not the commercials:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/10/news...ex.htm?cnn=yes

Well that certainly makes it less attractive.

[student_trap]

Originally Posted by Jericho2550

you can fast forward, but not the commercials:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/10/news...ex.htm?cnn=yes

i suppose that that makes it ok for watching once, but not for keeping. Which is obviously what their aim is...i.e. if you want to collect a series as a unit, you must purchase it

[M. Malone]

Originally Posted by emw

Well that certainly makes it less attractive.

with TV shows, as many have mentioned, you really don't wanna keep it to see it again, so I wouldn't mind commercials as opposed to paying $2, but if Apple offers this video service for TV shows for say $0.70 or less and made the file "self destruct" after viewing by 24 hours, so you can download 10 episodes, keep them for as long as you want, but after you have viewed them, the clock starts ticking, you can rewind and play around with it before the file stops working. I think that would be great.

[Nermal]

It's a good idea, but I'm not holding my breath - they'll probably attach "USA only" and "Windows only" restrictions to it

Edit: Yep, they check your IP address and only let you in if you're in the USA.

[Nikhil72]

The videos are encoded in Flash8 and will apparently work with Macs according to http://playlistmag.com/news/2006/04/10/abc/index.php.

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif

Disney-ABC announced today in a press release that four TV shows, including three currently sold in the iTunes Music Store, will be made available for viewing at the ABC website the day after their network broadcasts, as part of an experiment during May and June.

"Commander in Chief", "Desperate Housewives", and "Lost" are already sold through the iTunes Music Store, for $1.99 per episode. The current season of "Alias", which is not sold in the Store, will be available as well.

Broadcasts will be streamed using Flash 8, in either 500x282 at 400kbs or 700x394 at 700 kbps, both of which use the 16x9 aspect ratio. Users, on Macs or PCs, will be able to pause and select chapters, but not skip the commercials from major advertisers that will make up part of the stream. These commercials will be interactive.

Our mission with this trial is to gather key learning about the technology and the consumers who utilize it in order for ABC.com to become the leading broadband digital entertainment experience, packed with innovative, immersive content for our viewers. In the months ahead, ABC.com will not only deliver a high quality, on-demand viewing experience to users, but will also gain valuable knowledge and research to help us better understand and serve our consumers in the rapidly evolving digital world.

ABC was the first major television network to distribute their shows via the iTunes Music Store, and will now be offering viewers a choice to watch the original broadcast, purchase shows without commercials from the iTunes Music Store, or (during the two-month experiment) watch the free broadband stream.

[Electro Funk]

Originally Posted by student_trap

it may sound like an obvious question but... will you be able to fast forward through the adds? or will it be like it is on some dvd's where you have to watch all the promotional stuff

My bets on you being forced to watch the commercials but able to FF through the program...

Edit... Whoops didnt see Jericho's post...

[trainguy77]

I like this idea. I hope more companies will do this. That way I can watch the stargate SG-1 episodes I miss the next day!

[Doctor Q]

I'm not clear on whether all episodes would remain available once they were shown (during the time of the experiment) or whether only the latest show would be online.

I could use some catching up on Alias.

[EricNau]

I hope it hurts iTunes TV video sales.

[dongmin]

Originally Posted by Doctor Q

I'm not clear on whether all episodes would remain available once they were shown (during the time of the experiment) or whether only the latest show would be online.

I could use some catching up on Alias.

I imagine it'll just be the most recent episode, or else there would be no incentive to buy DVDs which are quite lucrative for the studios.

For someone without a TV, this is not a bad alternative, but it all depends on how it the flash interface works. I want to be able to watch it full screen on my widescreen monitor.

[Shaker]

Wonder if this is why Apple shares were down today.

[balamw]

I'm confused by one thing, the article claims 4x the resolution of the iTMS videos at just about the same bitrate ~700 kbps. Either I'm missing something, Flash 8 is a better codec than H.264, or these videos will be full of compression artifacts.

B

[Doctor Q]

Originally Posted by EricNau

I hope it hurts iTunes video sales.

Why? Don't you want all three choices?

I expect that this will cut into the sales a bit, since we're clearing talking about the same audience: show fans who use online technology, but Disney-ABC is clearly happy to take your money directly or be paid by their advertisers. And this gives them one more way to sell ad time and collect viewers' attention.

I might even like to try their "interactive ads" and see whether they made them at all entertaining. Then the novelty will quickly wear off.

Originally Posted by dongmin

I imagine it'll just be the most recent episode, or else there would be no incentive to buy DVDs which are quite lucrative for the studios.

But Disney-ABC is the studio, so if they can get guaranteed ad money up front, perhaps they won't mind.

[EricNau]

Originally Posted by Doctor Q

Why? Don't you want all three choices?

I expect that this will cut into the sales a bit, since we're clearing talking about the same audience: show fans who use online technology, but Disney-ABC is clearly happy to take your money directly or be paid by their advertisers. And this gives them one more way to sell ad time and collect viewers' attention.

I might even like to try their "interactive ads" and see whether they made them at all entertaining. Then the novelty will quickly wear off.

Music Videos were one thing, but selling TV shows through iTMS just never made sense to me. For $2 an episode, the quality is horrible (unless you watch it on an iPod, which doesn't make sense either).
Once the novelty wears off, I doubt we'll see iTunes TV video sales take Apple anywhere.

Plus some theorize this is why Apple isn't creating a true media center Mac with TV recording capabilities, because it would hurt their iTunes video sales. If this is in fact the reason, Apple is stupid because once again they'll end up loosing.

[MrCrowbar]

Originally Posted by balamw

I'm confused by one thing, the article claims 4x the resolution of the iTMS videos at just about the same bitrate ~700 kbps. Either I'm missing something, Flash 8 is a better codec than H.264, or these videos will be full of compression artifacts.

B

You can lower the framerate or overall quality to achieve a higher resolution with the same codec and bitrate. Sound can be compressed differently, too. I hope you will be able to watch full screen.

Interactive commercials sound interesting too. I guess you see a commercial and are enabled to click on a link that redirects you to the product/service homepage.

[p0intblank]

This is cool and everything, but it's also a big threat to iTunes video sales. Hmm...

[LimeiBook86]

Well this is good, maybe Flash will run a bit better on older machines. My Aunt downloaded an episode of "Lost" and her old G3 iMac DV chugged along making the movie look like a horrible slide show...then again Flash isn't exactly a speed daemon on older Macs anyway but...it's free so there's no gamble involved.

[andiwm2003]

Originally Posted by EricNau

..................... For $2 an episode, the quality is horrible (unless you watch it on an iPod, which doesn't make sense either).
...................................

it's convenient. $2 is no money and if you missed a Battle Star Episode, are home with the Flu, annoyed by the job, it's raining and you need to kill some time you just spend the money.
i like the service, although i won't download more than ~20 shows a year.

as long as i don't have to work through commercials i prefer paying two bucks. hell i pay a lot more for parking my car.

[qtip919]

Originally Posted by andiwm2003

it's convenient. $2 is no money and if you missed a Battle Star Episode, are home with the Flu, annoyed by the job, it's raining and you need to kill some time you just spend the money.
i like the service, although i won't download more than ~20 shows a year.

as long as i don't have to work through commercials i prefer paying two bucks. hell i pay a lot more for parking my car.

I couldnt agree more...being able to ff through commercials on my dvr is about the greatest thing ever...b/c of this, I rarely watch a TV show when it is being broadcast. I will gladly pay the 1.99 to keep from being bombarded by mindless advertising...