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ABC Kills Next-Day Streaming For Non-Subscribers

Posted by timothy on from the back-to-piracy-with-ye dept.

jfruh writes "ABC shows are available for free to anybody with antenna on the day and time they're first broadcast. But if you want them at any other time, it's getting harder to see them unless you pay someone. The network had previously made free ad-supported streamed versions of its shows available on its website the day after they aired, but now they're shifting that back to a week. Next-day streaming is still available if you have a cable or Hulu Plus subscription, showing the extent to which "broadcast" networks are dependent on subscriber fees."

4 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Cable Cutters don't care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The biggest commonality of cable cutters (including me) I know is that they don't watch or care about "live" TV. The difference between a day and a week is nothing to them. DVRs changed a lot of peoples watching habits and these people aren't paying the premium anymore.

    Look at Redbox, does a 90 day DVD release delay help sales? Not likely, you just shift what I watch 90 days in the future.

  2. Re:Uggh... by Tamran · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A watershed day is when HBO GO becomes available without a cable subscription.

    Interesting indeed. I wonder if Netflix will become what HBO GO could have been sooner? They're starting to develop some stuff of their own and don't require cable at all.

  3. Time-shifting is no longer a "feature" by netsavior · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Time shifting is no longer the "killer feature," time shifting IS television. This is the equivalent of a TV station in the 1950s saying "we will no longer be offering moving pictures with our radio programs."

    I have not watched TV on a network schedule for a decade, and my children don't even have the concept of a "TV Schedule".

    Fighting consumer demand is difficult, fighting consumer default expectations is suicide; especially in Entertainment media, where the whole world can turn on a dime, except you.

  4. What is This "cable" Of Which You Speak? by rueger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously. $75 to $100 a month for cable? Haven't done that for years. $8.95 a month for Netflix, plus a bit of Pirate Bay to top up the offerings. You tell me what makes more sense.

    Although honestly I'd be happy to pay say $25-30 a month for some hybrid of the two - at least for news channels.

    Of course the downside of not watching cable or network TV is that you really appreciate how horrible advertising is. Easily the most painful part of going out to a movie.

    --
    Three Squirrels