ABC: Ad-Supported "Lost" Episodes Available For Free Download
Steven L.
Meanwhile, iTunes Will Still Sell Ad-Free Versions of Same Programs
March 02, 2006
QwikFIND ID: AAR46X
By Claire Atkinson
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) –- Walt Disney Co. is expanding the availability of
its hit shows via ABC.com as part of its plans to create the "network of
the future." CEO Bob Iger detailed the soon-to-launch product called My
ABC, which will provide consumers with the opportunity to download shows
free of charge.
Bear Stearns conference
“Mike Shaw [ABC's president ad sales and marketing] announced today we
are going to take a product to market in May," Mr. Iger said at the Bear
Stearns media conference in Florida this week. "Viewers will have the
ability to access shows such as 'Lost,' 'Desperate Housewives' and
'Grey’s Anatomy' on ABC.com. They will be ad supported, free to the
consumer.”
Ads that accompany the video offering would not necessarily be the same
as those that appeared during the show's broadcast, he said.
Mr. Iger said Disney wanted to try a variety of business models for its
product, whether subscription or advertising supported. ABC shows are
also offered via Apple iTunes and iPod platforms for $1.99 a pop. Those
shows come without ad involvement.
'New direct commerce opportunities'
Mr. Iger said Disney was looking to create a number of revenue models
but because the company did not wish to turn its back on the ad
community, it would create new opportunities for them.
“There is so much greater consumption of media, the opportunity for
advertisers are greater; look at what Google has managed to do,” Mr.
Iger said. “Our job is to create the new networks and new direct
commerce opportunities.”
So far greater availability of ABC's shows via Apple’s iTunes does not
appear to have dented the shows' ratings, something advertisers had
feared might happen if consumers could find them elsewhere at anytime.
For the week of Feb. 20, “Grey’s Anatomy” ranked No. 6 in the Nielsen
Media Research ratings, watched by 24.7 million households, just behind
coverage of the Winter Olympics Feb. 23.
Gary Carr, senior VP-director of national broadcast at TargetCast TCM,
New York, said: “The one thing advertisers are worried about is whether
people are watching the commercials and are they watching the shows?”
Not yet selling new platform
He said ABC not yet started selling the new platform, but noted that
CBS, which has a deal to offer its hit shows via Comcast’s
video-on-demand platform, does so with the advertising that runs on the
linear network intact.
“Its good that they’re all trying different things. They’re testing a
lot of models that can generate additional revenues,” he concluded.
NBC also offers many of its network shows on the iTunes platform -- "The
Office" is one of the top performers -- while Fox is offering two
network shows, "Prison Break" and "24," through satellite sibling
DirecTV's VOD system for 99 cents.
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=48109
[
Well, I guess I was wrong. I had thought that the difficulty of
embedding local commercials from the local advertisers in each
affiliate's major market would hinder this concept.
I stand corrected--and I'm glad I was wrong.
]
--
Steven D. Litvintchouk
Email: sdli...@earthlinkNOSPAM.net
Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.
Patrick Joseph McNamara
"Steven L." <sdli...@earthlinkNOSPAM.net> wrote in message
news:t_1Of.6034$F56....@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> ABC TO OFFER AD-SUPPORTED PRIME-TIME SHOW DOWNLOADS
> Meanwhile, iTunes Will Still Sell Ad-Free Versions of Same Programs
> March 02, 2006
> QwikFIND ID: AAR46X
> By Claire Atkinson
>
> Well, I guess I was wrong. I had thought that the difficulty of embedding
> local commercials from the local advertisers in each affiliate's major
> market would hinder this concept.
>
> I stand corrected--and I'm glad I was wrong.
> ]
>
A sufficiently developed system could determine the IP address of the
viewser, although a simpler method would be for the website to get the
person's address (probably by postal code and country) when they signed up
to the service.
timeOday
tuning into "Lost"? I'm surprised it's so much.
To ask the obvious question, how will they try to force people to watch
the ads on the download version?
Stephen Donner
Why would CBS get money for an ABC show? ;-)
Donna B
<GOGdnasBL7F...@comcast.com>, timeOday
<timeOda...@theknack.net> wrote:
Can't FF, can't rewind, can't archive, ... they can't keep you from getting
up from the computer & going to the kitchen or bathroom or whatever, but,
they can make the situation as appealing as possible with a drastic
reduction in the ratio of ad time to show time. If they're as smart as they
can be in trying this they will also use clever ads.
--
Donna B 8^> shallotpeel <*> Yahoo Messenger: shallotpeel
Steven L.
The article refers to an actual *product* called "My ABC." My guess is
that's a custom media player application that you must use to download
and play the episode. With no fast forward or ability to play only
parts of the episode; so you're forced to sit in front of it and watch
the whole thing from start to finish, ads included. Just like a TV.
I'll bet the downloaded episodes won't work with Windows Media Player or
any other standard player which give you the ability to skip parts of
the download.
How's that?
Steven L.
Sure, but is ABC going to store all the local commercials for all their
affiliates on their own server? I had thought that ABC would need to
require each of their affiliates to store their local commercials on
their own servers, so that when you download the episode from the ABC
website, it assembles a custom download for you by importing the local
commercials from the affiliates' websites. But that seems like a lot of
work, especially since the affiliates won't make a dime off the deal.
ANIM8Rfsk
at sdli...@earthlinkNOSPAM.net wrote on 3/4/06 12:03 PM:
> timeOday wrote:
>> Does this mean CBS really gets $2 worth of ad revenue for each household
>> tuning into "Lost"? I'm surprised it's so much.
>>
>> To ask the obvious question, how will they try to force people to watch
>> the ads on the download version?
>
> The article refers to an actual *product* called "My ABC." My guess is
> that's a custom media player application that you must use to download
> and play the episode. With no fast forward or ability to play only
> parts of the episode; so you're forced to sit in front of it and watch
> the whole thing from start to finish, ads included. Just like a TV.
>
> I'll bet the downloaded episodes won't work with Windows Media Player or
> any other standard player which give you the ability to skip parts of
> the download.
I bet they won't work on a Mac at all. :)
Steven L.
I thought Macs were dead, like Commodore 64's.
Taylor
Steven L. wrote:
Has as much of a future as all these dandy products:
----> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_failures <----
Lawrence Leichtman
business that has over 50 Macs.
In article <ryoOf.7347$5M6....@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net>,
kathryn
"Steven L." <sdli...@earthlinkNOSPAM.net> wrote in message
> timeOday wrote:
>> Does this mean CBS really gets $2 worth of ad revenue for each household
>> tuning into "Lost"? I'm surprised it's so much.
>>
>> To ask the obvious question, how will they try to force people to watch
>> the ads on the download version?
>
> The article refers to an actual *product* called "My ABC." My guess is
> that's a custom media player application that you must use to download and
> play the episode. With no fast forward or ability to play only parts of
> the episode; so you're forced to sit in front of it and watch the whole
> thing from start to finish, ads included. Just like a TV.
>
I don't know about you but I excerise my remote when commercials come on the
tv. It's rare that I would bother to sit through them
ANIM8Rfsk
at sdli...@earthlinkNOSPAM.net wrote on 3/4/06 3:30 PM:
Not yet, but I think the move to Intel chips will do it.
mrs...@gmail.com
and watch all the episodes of lost! yeah you have to search lost episodes first and then save them into your pc or stream them online.
OscartheGrouch
> Go to YOUMOVIESET.COM
>
> and watch all the episodes of lost! yeah you have to search lost episodes first and then save them into your pc or stream them online.
>