ABC To Offer Full Shows Online

vitaly.friedman writes to mention an Ars Technica story on the ABC's newest bid to stay relevant in the Information Age. As of the end of this month the network will be airing certain popular television shows on the ABC website, starting the morning after their first broadcast. From the article: "All programs will be shown in their entirety, including commercials which cannot be avoided. That's a smart move on ABC's part, as it ensures that advertisers will get another shot at hawking their wares to an audience that might otherwise change channels during commercial breaks or fast-forward through them if recorded. Aside from being unable to avoid commercials, watching the programs will be similar to watching timeshifted content in that viewers will be able to pause, fast forward, and rewind."

Comments

Available the day after?

[RunFatBoy.net]

If ABC is really looking to make a splash, maybe they should offer some of these episodes the day *before* they air. Given how quickly buzz becomes stale after the fact, people would jump at a chance to get a preview of their favorite show.

Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/ -- A workout plan that doesn't feel like homework.

Re:Available the day after?

[Daniel_Staal]

This way more people are likely to watch it twice.

Also, this way they aren't stepping on revenue streams for their local affliates. (Who may be able to show some local ads during the regular broadcast. Or at least share revenue.)

What you are talking about is a whole different business model. It could well work, but I wouldn't want to give up a currently working business model to try it.

Re:Available the day after?

[DaoudaW]

What you are talking about is a whole different business model.

How is this a whole new business model? Sounds like the same old same old to me...

Now I'll admit I'm not much of a TV watcher anyway, but I'm not particularly interested in web-content that turns my PC into a small, lo-res television complete with 16 minutes of ads per hour. What's new about that???

What would be cool is if the site remembers exactly where I was when I last watched. Dynamically generate a short recap of my last session to remind me of the highlights of what I last watched. Allow me to link to excerpts from previous episodes when they're alluded to. Maybe even have a writer's forum where they can go deeper into background and get feedback from the audience as the show unfolds.

Just using TCP/IP instead of cable or radio waves doesn't begin to constitute a new business model.

Re:Available the day after?

[Daniel_Staal]

Downloading for free over the internet (even with commercials) is a different business model then offering via local affliates over television. If you release the episiode first on the internet you are relying on that as the business model, and the TV is just an added bonus. If they found they couldn't make money doing it, but that people switched to watching it that way instead of via their old business model it would at the very least kill the show.

This way they can test to see if they can actually make money this way without any worries about it eating into their old revenue stream. (Or, at least not eating into it much.)

The reason it is a different business model is because there is a different cost structure: The studio is having to pay more of the distrobution and advertising recruitment costs. This is also on-demand instead of push. The end result is that they don't actually know until they try it how much it is going to cost to distribute. Now, they also get all the revenue directly, but exactly how that effect the profits is unclear.

It's on-demand instead of push, it's centralized instead of distributed, it's in a format that is closer to editable (and easier to share). The fact that it's TCP/IP instead of cable/satelite is irrelevent. The behind the scenes differences are substantial.

Re:Available the day after?

[TheRaven64]

I live in the UK, so I am used to about half as many adverts as you (a 42 minute program takes 42 minutes on the BBC, 50-55 minutes on the other channels and 60 minutes in the USA). Last year, I pretty much stopped watching broadcast TV because there were too many adverts. There are many other forms of entertainment where I don't have to waste 20% of the time watching advertisements, and so TV could not compete. The only series I watch are those which are released for rental on DVD (I have a subscription to a NetFlix-like service).

If any TV provider wants to re-gain my custom, then they will have to provide an ad-free delivery system. I don't mind paying for what I watch (although I do prefer a fixed fee, watch whatever you like system), but I do object to wasting my time.

Re:Available the day after?

[slashname3]

I built a mythtv system over a year ago and have rarely watched live tv since. The commercial skip feature on mythtv works pretty well. :)

As to the article, if they allow you to "fast forward" doesn't that let you avoid most of the commercials? Or have they figured out how to block the fast forward when a commercial is playing?

Re:Available the day after?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or you could always, oh, I don't know, do some IP address sniffing or ask people what their preferred station is, or only allow people to watch a show from their local station's website? Otherwise, the ad revenue could be shared with the local affiliates, using a ratio determined by their performance on non-internet broadcast shows.

Re:Cannot?

[Zendar]

What exactly does "Cannot be avoided" mean? do they actually think they can prevent people from skipping the commercials?

That's what I'd like to know! The article doesn't state the technology used to view the programs. My guess is it's embedded Windows Media. Maybe they allow you to fast forward through the program, but when the commercials air, you cann ff/rw? Most news Web sites that offer video content make you watch a 30s spot that you cannot ff though. Then the "free" video airs.

I wonder if the commercials will change too? What about regional ads that most affiliates show?

Commercial Skipping

[lax-goalie]

Maybe if advertisers stopped making commercials that are crap, they wouldn't need to lock us out of fast forward during commercials.

It can be done. How many Super Bowls have had commercials better than the game?

Related article on CNN

[moochfish]

Disney to put TV shows online
http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/10/news/companies/dis ney.reut/index.htm?section=cnn_topstories

Re:Related article on CNN

[xbradlyx]

Disney to put TV shows online
http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/10/news/companies/dis ney.reut/index.htm?section=cnn_topstories

ABC is Disney.

And while we are at it... Pixar is Disney which is ABC, and Steve Jobs is Pixar, and Steve Jobs is Apple, and iTunes is Apple, and iTunes already sells some ABC shows. Interesting, no?

-bradly

Re:Cannot?

[badasscat]

What exactly does "Cannot be avoided" mean? do they actually think they can prevent people from skipping the commercials?

Um, yes?

It's very easy. Encode the video in Flash and do a php call so the file name is never revealed - not even the url to the directory where the file *is* is revealed. Can't be downloaded (even by workaround methods), and controls can be set in the embedded player so you can't fast-forward (my guess is the last part of the article submission is wrong - you can maybe rewind and then ff to the last point you were at in the video, but you won't be able to skip ahead).

The big video sites don't do this right now, but it is possible, and a lot of smaller sites do do it. We'll see if ABC is smart enough, but judging by the way they describe this, it sounds like they've figured it out.

I've been saying TV stations should do this exact thing for years. You want to stop "piracy" of your shows? Put them online for free. Show the ads; we know you've gotta make money. But don't force me to pay 2 bucks just because I wasn't home at the time the show was on and presumably don't have (or can't afford?) TiVo.

Now you've got a choice, at least with the bigger shows. Pay 2 bucks and watch them ad-free, or pay nothing and watch with ads. Pretty much the way it should be, if you ask me.

The only question left is what sort of quality we'll get. I mean considering HDTV is free, then ideally the online version should match that quality - but no way it will for reasons of bandwidth. Hopefully it'll at least match what you can find on file sharing sites, though... if they really are serious about doing away with that sort of thing, especially.

Re:Its Free!

[Lumpy]

or you can watch the top 20 shows in HD quality and without DRM for free from your favorite bittorrent tracker site.

Until they give me high quality I have zero interest.

Cue the people claiming I am STEALING from them by watching the bittorrents

Re:It's Corporate Greed, nothing else.

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

I agree to a certain extent, why should we pay for cable AND watch the commercials too, but television shows are costing ten's of millions to make, and many of them are sad sad failures. I would rather watch some commercials that generate revenue to create both the good and bad television then to have to pay $500 a month for 100 commercial free channels that are still filled with lots of garbage and I can't possibly watch all the content anyways.

Also, ABC doesn't get a dime from your cable bill. Cable companies are making huge profits by charging you to view ABC in digital or HD. Only those specialty channels like HBO that you pay extra for get revenue from your cable bill. Again, I would prefer if MOST television was not a premium channel because I don't think 100 HBO like channels would survive or offer the same quality of content as HBO.

Do what I do. I never watch TV in real time anymore. I record all the shows I want to watch on my PVR, and this way I can fast forward through the commercials. It saves me time (up to 12 minutes per hour of programming), and I am not annoyed by all the advertising.

If you don't like commercials, then don't watch TV. Its almost hypocritical to complain about commercials but expect to still watch television for free or cheap. The two have gone hand in hand since the beginning. Pick up a book or rent movies or play video games if you want cheap commercial free entertainment.

Re:Cannot?

[ichimunki]

Encode the video in Flash and do a php call so the file name is never revealed - not even the url to the directory where the file *is* is revealed.

How does this stop someone from using a proxy to capture the URL of the request? Even if the source of the stream is capable of being obscured... wouldn't a user simply be able to capture the video stream data at the client and modify it to his heart's content?

Re:DING DING DING! About bloody time!

[shreak]

They're not quite doing what we said they should do. Here's what we said they should do: - Offer television programs as downloadable files (e.g. a nice XviD or something) with no restrictions that can be archived, traded, and/or watched at your leisure. Here's what they did do: - Offer television programs in a restricted format watchable online only as streaming videos with no opportunity to record or, apparently, skip commercials (or so it would seem from the article). You, like the TV studios, still apparently don't "get it".

Maybe they don't get it, but it's clear from your post that you don't either. You want them to hand everything to you gratis. They want you to hand them all your cash. With a smile please. We've identified the polemics, that's step one. Step two is you reach a win-win midpoint where you both get a deal you're happy with. Or you walk away. You're obviously not happy with the deal. So walk away. Unfortunately for all involved this is the worst kind of market: Non-Commodity, Non-Negotiated. In the best case you're dealing with commodities so you don't need to negotiate. Why bother? A widget is a widget. Name your price or place a bid, depending on which role you're playing. Next is a negotiated market. Haggle with your seller until you reach a price you think is fair. Not bad if you're in a fluid, info rich market. You can "overhear" other negotiations and have an idea of where "fair" is. Worse (we're here) is a non-commodity, non-negotiated market. This is tough for both parties. You can't just "go somewhere else" since the product isn't a commodity. There's no mechanism for negotiation so it's a take-it or leave-it proposition. The seller can't determine where the price floor is and the buyer has no mechanism to communicate bids to the seller, he can only walk away. =Shreak

Re:Cannot?

[timholman]

Hell, just put up a torrent and leave the commercials in. Most people will just download and watch the thing and then delete it. They'll pay no more and no less attention to commercials than they already do. Why make it so damn hard on people to watch a friggin TV show?

Exactly. 99% of the general public will always do what's most convenient, and will trade off money for convenience. People pay $1.99 for an iTunes TV show because it's convenient. Forget the fact that they could download it or record it themselves, then convert it to iPod format. For most folks, it's better to pay $1.99 and avoid that much effort.

If networks released torrents of shows at 320 x 240 pixel resolution with embedded commercials, the percentage of people who would bother to strip the commercials would be very small. Most people would simply go to the official network site, start the torrent download, watch the show, then delete it. Furthermore, a low res "free" version would not compete with a later DVD release to those who wanted a big screen version. If you're worried about people skipping commercials with fast forwarding, then put the show in some sort of proprietary format that requires a special player that won't permit it. Sure, it could be cracked, but 99% of the viewing public won't bother! They'll just download the player and watch (or ignore) the commercials just like they do when watching live TV.

Given the rumors of a video iPod with a larger screen, I could imagine a future where (a) 320 x 240 downloads with commercials were free, (b) 480 x 360 or 640 x 480 downloads without commercials cost $1.99 from iTunes, and (c) DVD and cable HDTV distribution stayed the way it is now.

Re:please. stfu

[Jherek Carnelian]

I think what it boils down to is that most people here just want shit for free, and will say anything to pretend that they have some valid objection with the system and that it warrants theft (or "copyright infringement" for the pedants).

Don't forget for one second that the studios and networks are ALREADY getting shinola for free. They just have the current system of laws to guarantee that they get money for nothing.

Once a show has completed production, any money the studio or network gets for airing or otherwise selling copies is money for nothing. The cost of airing a show or putting it out for download is marginally zero.

They are no better than the dotters that you complain about, except that they've bought the laws to back them up.

You might argue that they somehow deserve to get money for free because they took the risk of funding the production in the first place. That is inherently an anti-american, anti-free market position. Nobody deserves money just because they risked money. If it were otherwise, casinos would be bankrupted.

These guys need to get a new business model that does not depend on getting money for nothing. Until then, they and you, have got no business complaining that dotters want stuff for free when the current entertainment industry is completely built on getting as much cash as they possibly can for doing no work at all.

TIVO?

[swell]

I haven't seen TIVO mentioned yet.

Since around 1959, when I got my shiny new Norelco Carrycorder, I have been recording broadcasts to play back at my leisure. I can fast forward, rewind and with some systems even edit the content.

My Mac now does that for me. I record TV to my hard drive. Weekly shows are easily preprogrammed and a special show that I discover tonight can be recorded with a single click. I can watch live TV and pause, back up, and fast forward even as it is streaming onto my drive. I can put the TV in a corner of my monitor and continue typing messages to /.

The software allows me to edit those programs worth preserving--removing commercials and boring parts... Then I can save the edited file in a number of compressed formats.

I assume that many readers can do most of this with their TIVO or their computer. Don't know why it hasn't been mentioned.

Now why would I want this ABC service?