Time Shifting Accelerates This Fall
I’m a huge fan of ABC’s “Lost”. I’ve been looking forward to the season premiere on Wednesday for weeks. BUT…it turns out I’ll be driving from Albuquerque to Santa Fe while the drama of Jack, Sawyer, Michael, Hurley et al gears up again.
While my husband will Tivo it for me, I won’t be able to watch that until Friday. But thanks to ABC.com, I’ll be able to connect to the wi-fi in my hotel room on Thursday and watch the premiere. BTW — If you are lost when it comes to “Lost” they have a great sneak peek up on ABC.com that gives you the back story to get you up to speed.
For months people have been talking about how online video is poised to skyrocket (both in programming and in advertising) because broadband is now well entrenched. Successes like the streaming last year of some of the March Madness games proved that people are willing to “watch” programming online and were perfectly OK with advertising supporting the program. Plus advertisers have been happy with results thus far. The TV premiers that are available online this fall certainly seem to indicate that not only is online video now technologically feasible, but profitable as well.
Nearly every major network this season has tapped the web to air and/or promote their programs.
While ABC last year made episodes of popular prime-time shows like Desperate Housewives and Lost available for purchase via iTunes, last week AdAge announced the names of 21 advertisers participating in ABC’s program this fall to stream some of it’s biggest prime-time shows free to viewers. Shows include returning hits Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy as well as new shows Six Degrees, The Nine, The Knights of Prosperity and Ugly Betty. Advertisers include Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Johnson & Johnson and many more. During the two month test over the summer, 79 percent of those surveyed claimed to have a positive experience with the ABC stream/site, and 87 percent said they would recommend it to others.
NBC debuted two new series — “Friday Night Lights” and “30 Rock” — on NBCFirstLook.com one week before their broadcast debuts. Supported with pre-roll advertising from AT&T, the site is also carrying the beginning of four returning shows, including “My Name is Earl.” NBC worked with AOL to stream “Twenty Good Years” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” online a week before their broadcast debuts.
Yahoo TV has partnered with CBS’s Showtime to stream new episodes of “Weeds,” “Sleeper Cell,” “The L Word” and “Dexter.”
CBS will have a significant presence on the Web in the fall, posting its most popular primetime programming on its broadband channel Innertube free to view immediately after their network debuts.
Today FOX announced they would air full episodes of its television shows on MySpace.com and the Web sites of its local Fox TV stations after they have aired. The new ad-supported Fox on Demand will be sponsored at launch by Toyota, Burger King and Lionsgate. Fox on Demand viewers will have their pick of previously aired episodes from new and returning shows including “Bones,” “Prison Break,” “Standoff,” “Vanished,” “Talk Show With Spike Feresten,” “‘Til Death,” “The Loop” and “Justice.”
Having now watched several fall shows online (including Grey’s Anatomy this evening) I’ll admit I’m impressed. The process is soooo simple. The streams are smooth, the picture is terrific, the control is great and the experience is very pleasant. I’m use to multi-tasking — generally the TV is on while I’m working on the computer. But now I find myself more efficient and surprisingly it’s significantly easier to keep up with the TV program. If I need to concentrate on a work task, I can pause the show for a moment or rewind to watch something again. I’ve got a 20″ screen on my iMac and I can work on a doc with the stream right next to it. Simple and sweet. Nice. And that simplicity is what will make it fly.
This post was written by: Kim Mickelsen