ABC iPad App Launch Seen as Successful Entry for Television Streaming

[shervieux]

Unless they make entire seasons available to watch. That would be a good way to bring new viewers to their shows.....

I love on-demand Tv. I used Hulu and Joost to watch many of the shows I used to love that are just not on TV anymore. Cosby Show, Alf, Family Ties, Who's the boss, Taxi, Roseanne - just to name a small few. My wife uses it to get caught up on episodes she missed (Ugly Betty, Hell's kitchen, Glee, Desparate Housewives, etc). I also watched a couple of good movies (that I did not even know existed) on Hulu while working late and waiting for databases to defrag. I would love for all the networks to go this route and stream free TV (I don't mind if they did what Hulu did - 1 15->30-second commercial every 15 minutes to 1/2 hr). Much less annoying than regular TV with 3 minutes of commercials every 5 minutes, it seems.

I am not going back to satellite or Cable, too expensive and you have to buy packages that usually contain channels I would not even watch. They get ya by splitting up the channels you would watch across multiple packages - so you either have to buy multiple packages or get an expensive all inclusive package. I am sorry, but I do not watch enough TV to justify paying $150 a month for the channels I do watch and having 30 or more channels that I do not watch.

would be great for all the networks to also put entire seasons and shows that went off the air, and allowed them to be viewed in full (with limited commercial interruptions). Works good for the consumer, good for the advertiser, good for the networks. a win-win for everyone (especially if Obama does push his initiative to bring broadband to all rural areas out west that are still stuck on dialup with no options).

this would make my $45 for DSL, $30 data plan for my iphone, and soon to be $30 data plan for my ipad that much more viable. i would rather pay $105 a month for internet to do what I need where I need, than $150 a month just for TV. I use over-the-air TV now, but I must agree that I am stuck watching what the networks air on their schedule. Not what I want to watch on my schedule.

 

[mcmlxix]

How are the Ads on the ABC app?

I've noticed that with Hulu, I've be shown the same ad or two repeatedly. Seeing an ad for Axe 6 times in a row doesn't make me want to buy it any more. This raises the question, how will they target demographics with their advertising?

 

[Stelph]

Sound like a nice app, hopefully when the iPad comes to the UK the Project Canvas team brin out a simlar app (project canvas is a team that is looking into having an internet TV presence with all the major free to view providers having their online content in one place), would be great!

As to watching programs on an iPad or on a TV, itll never happen with Apple but wouldn't it be great if the iPad/Ipod touch had wireless HDMI? That way you could sync your iPad/Ipod Touch to your TV and you could watch the program/film ect on the pad, or if you wanted to watch it with a few people, one click and it pops up on the TV screen for everyone to enjoy. I know the ipod-tv acbel does this already but its a bit of a hassle having to get up to walk over to the TV to plug in the cable!

This is quite a cool implementation of this (the drag and drop to the video part anyway!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tio5OvIqToc&feature=player_embedded

 

[cuddykid]

looks like a great app!

 

[DaveGee]

I see this as an ADDITION but not replacing TV.

Perhaps for you this might be a good 'in addition to' technology but for an ever growing segment of the population it's not. The cold hard fact is this, people are using the internet for more and more hours each week and those 'hours' have to come from somewhere... Whether the studios like it or not, TV is not the 'be all end all' that it once was. Marginal TV shows (and that is MOST of them) are no longer going to be watched "just because nothing 'better' is on" ...

In todays word SOMETHING better is ALWAYS on but instead of that something being on the TV screen it's on the computer screen.

Kids today, if you threaten to take TV away they might be mildly upset but if you tell them you are taking the Internet away they'd go crazy... Crazy like most of us older people did who lived in front of the TV (those of us born BEFORE PONG and the Atari 2600). To us TV was everything... then the future generations it was TV AND Game Consoles... now its TV, Game Consoles, Computers AND the Internet. Net result, TV doesn't have the all-mighty power it once had and it NEVER WILL again.

If broadcasters and producers don't make their programming available ON DEMAND and at a reasonable or free cost then people will just move on. Life is to short and if you don't make it easy for me to view your program on my terms something else WILL fill that spot. Now, while TV is taking the biggest hit, the movie industry must be starting to fee the effects as well.. It'll sure be interesting to see what the TV and Movie Industries looks like 5,10,15 years from now. Will it resemble what the 'radio industry' became after TV was introduced?

Remember, in the not too distant past 'Radio was King' and now its nothing more than caned music playlists, sports and a handful of moderately successful political talk shows ... oh and lots and lots of snake-oil infomercials disguised as call-in medical shows.

Some might chuckle but in Star Trek there was no such thing as 'Hollywood' anymore, however there were LOTS of iPads...

 

[mcmlxix]

Some might chuckle but in Star Trek there was no such thing as 'Hollywood' anymore, however there were LOTS of iPads...

I wouldn’t be so fast to suggest that Hollywood is going away any time soon. iPads and Apple TVs need content…with studio production quality. Sure, with increasing technology, and new distribution methods, the content provided by independents will increase. But you have to ask whether bulk of the masses will want to consume independent content or the usual pabulum Hollywood dispenses today. As long as there’s a profitable lowest common denominator, Hollywood will be there to fill it with content. Profitability is the key here. The whole paradigm of distribution methods are shifting. They’ll adapt.

 

[rstansby]

Too bad the rotation lock doesn't work correctly in this app.

If you are watching a show in landscape orientation, and turn on the rotation lock it will lock the screen in portrait mode, instead of locking the screen in its current state.

 

[rstansby]

would be great for all the networks to also put entire seasons and shows that went off the air, and allowed them to be viewed in full (with limited commercial interruptions). Works good for the consumer, good for the advertiser, good for the networks. a win-win for everyone (especially if Obama does push his initiative to bring broadband to all rural areas out west that are still stuck on dialup with no options).

CBS.com already offers many full seasons of old shows. I'm not sure how extensive it is, but they seem to have every episode of the original Star Trek (for example). I'm sure they have many others, but I haven't watched them.

Also the CBS iPad "app" is just the CBS website in mobile safari for the iPad. So far they only have one episode of Survivor, but I am sure that they have plans to expand their library, hopefully to include all of those episodes of Star Trek, and other old shows.

 

[DaveGee]

I wouldn’t be so fast to suggest that Hollywood is going away any time soon. iPads and Apple TVs need content…with studio production quality.

Well we can both agree on that... I'm certainly not predicting the fall of Hollywood in the next 20 years. However, I do see their 'grip' on the undivided attention span of the planet will certain show signs of failing in that time frame. There's just too much 'stuff' being created by outside forces (people on the net) that will garner more of the average citizens 'free time'. Free time that was previously spent watching the TV.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

Just tried to watch Lost on the ABC app for the office iPad. I got audio, but no video.

 

[AidenShaw]

I got audio, but no sound.

You might want to edit that ...

 

[PeterQVenkman]

You might want to edit that ...

That's what happens when I don't get my RDA of Lost!

 

[Porchland]

I hope this shows every TV network they should have their own apps.

Once OS 4.0 comes out with folders, I can imagine having just a folder called 'TV" on my ipad, and in it will be apps from each of the major networks and probably some of the cable networks too. Then you could channel surf on your ipad, just in a totally different way than one is used to.

I'm surprised ABC went this route. Considering how tightly Apple has controlled content roll-outs in the past, the relationship between Apple and Disney, and the availability of the same content in the iTunes Store, I did not expect a branded ABC app with streaming shows.

With the ABC app, Netflix app, Opera browser for iPhone, not pre-installing iBooks on the iPads, etc., I'm surprised at what a democratized approach Apple has taken to content lately.