The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Disney will be putting much of it's popular content online permanently - available free of charge. The kicker is that you'll have to use a Disney provided theater and there will be ads that can't be skipped.
Walt Disney Co. plans to make much of its newest and most popular programming on ABC and other channels available free anytime on the Web, in a move that could speed the transformation of television viewing habits and help revive the struggling TV advertising business.
On April 30, ABC will unveil a revamped Web site that will include a "theater" where people with broadband connections can watch free episodes of "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and other hit shows on their computers. Episodes will be available the morning after they air and will be archived so people can eventually view a whole season. A Disney Channel version with five shows will start in June, and an ABC Family version is also planned. Disney's Soapnet cable channel will start offering programs free on its Web site, Soapnetic, on April 17.Episodes of the ABC shows -- which can be paused, rewound and fast-forwarded -- will contain commercial breaks that viewers can't skip, making Disney hopeful it has figured out a way to turn the delivery of programs over the Web into a profit-generating business. Ten advertisers, including Ford Motor Co., Procter & Gamble, Universal Pictures and Unilever, already have signed up.
The initiative, to be announced today by Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, marks a watershed: the first time a TV company is offering major prime-time shows free online without restriction. Until now, networks have brokered limited piecemeal deals in a bid to keep business partners happy and their traditional business models intact.
The best part is the archiving; allowing someone to catch up with an episodic series such as "Lost."
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Comments (5)
So to use this 'new' techno... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Jon | April 10, 2006 11:19 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
So to use this 'new' technology, the ffwd button is broken during commercials.
I'm going back to my old technology of ReplayTV(Tivo).
1. Posted by Jon | April 10, 2006 11:19 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 10, 2006 11:19
2. Posted by epador | April 11, 2006 6:12 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
It'll take at most a week for some hacker to figure out a way around the blocked FF. Bring it on.
2. Posted by epador | April 11, 2006 6:12 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 11, 2006 18:12
3. Posted by Daniel | April 11, 2006 11:15 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
so what's to stop a person from getting up and doing something productive--or even just muting it and surfing the web--during the commercials, and then rewinding to get anything they missed? the commercials may be "unskippable," but they're definitely not unmissable.
3. Posted by Daniel | April 11, 2006 11:15 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 11, 2006 23:15
4. Posted by Johnny Catbird | April 13, 2006 10:51 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
I really hope that no one hacks the no skip commercial feature and posts it in the first week or two, honestly. Doing that is only going to make ABC (and other networks) decide that this isn't a viable option for releasing television episodes.
I plan on using this feature, if only to give the other networks something to emulate. As an earlier poster said, just because the commercial has to play doesn't mean I have to sit and watch it -- I can always get up and make a sandwich, and I can always rewind the episode if I'm gone too long.
4. Posted by Johnny Catbird | April 13, 2006 10:51 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 13, 2006 10:51
5. Posted by Domen | July 8, 2006 2:07 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
so where is this site?
5. Posted by Domen | July 8, 2006 2:07 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 8, 2006 14:07