(Online TV) Freedom is on the March: NBC, ABC Deals Make More Shows Available Online
In what may be coincidental but is nonetheless interesting timing, stories involving both ABC and NBC making broadcast shows available online (at least for an increment of time after the show premieres on television) have caught the buzz over the last 24 hours.
ABC’s deal with AOL locks in distribution via AOL and features advertising embedded during shows, with no cost to viewers. The NBC deal allows people to stream shows for free for one week after shows premiere on the broadcast network. Advertising runs on shows and can’t be fast-forwarded through.
So, what have we learned here?
* Television isn’t just rushing to get online. It’s scrambling.
The days of massive traditional audiences watching TV distributed by networks on a television set are in their last throes. The networks now get this and are hell bent on finding new ways to get eyeballs in front of their shows.
* The future of television is online, free, and ad-supported.
Some people might pay $1.99 to download shows on iTunes (guilty here, when I went away for several weeks and my DVR forgot to record Lost!) but for most, they’ll sit through short, sweet, and relevant advertising.
* People are online and want entertaining content.
This is the most powerful force of all. The audience is there, and there’s a marketplace for quality entertainment content. That race is on at warp speed to fill it.
* Return of the TV?
Just for kicks, think about this: wouldn’t it be wild if the traditional TV, powered by the DVRs (digital video recorders) that networks despise, actually made a bid for people to return to their sets because it allowed people to fast-forward through commercials?
* Check the trends.
Here’s what we’re looking at: traditional TV will figure out more ways to advertise in-show (thanks, TiVo!), online TV will figure out the revenue model (think short pre-rolls, mid-roll, post-roll that allow interactivity if the user desires), and much much more content available online than ever, including original offerings such as Quarterlife.
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September 21st, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Eric, here again, an intriguing difference of opinion. I am pathetically grateful for the chance to buy a television show which has already been gutted of all mind-numbing commercials for only a buck ninety-nine! A bargain at twice the price, as my grandmother used to say.
Not only does the new free NBC approach come riddled with extant commercials which CANNOT be zapped, as I understand it, the TV show itself also self-destructs after 7 days, or something like that.
It’s free, but in the end, they take it back.
September 22nd, 2007 at 12:42 am
Dirk, I haven’t had to endure an hour of television replete with commercials in a very long time, so perhaps I agree with you! The DVR has completely changed the way I consume television shows (on the traditional television, a new caveat I fear we may have to start using very soon) but that’s a topic for a different time.
I do think that the standard model will shake out as something like very short pre-roll, perhaps a mid-roll, and post-roll with roll over advertising (that invites clicks for more info/entertainment/activity) and product placement thrown into the mix.
It’s very interesting that NBC is taking on iTunes though — and I think that will be a good thing for people looking to get more quality video/television shows online at the cheapest price and at the best possible user experience.
September 22nd, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Almost anything that finishes off TV in its present form gets my vote.
So you and I would seem to agree on the basic premise: Kill your (traditional) television!
September 22nd, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Once again I am getting screwed in Shanghai. But this time it isn’t the great firewall of china’s fault. Thus far all of the network TV I’ve tried to stream online doesn’t work because the networks won’t allow it to play in a non-US country. Or at least in this non-US country.
They don’t say so but I suspect it is all due to concerns over the shows being saved to hard drives and then being bit torrented. Fair enough I guess since I do live in the bootleg capital of the world, but all it really does is make me go buy an illegal copy on DVD when they hit the streets. And thus no money goes into the network pocket.
September 23rd, 2007 at 12:09 am
Dirk, I’m a fan of great TV (a huge geek about it actually, don’t get me started!) and am excited about the prospect of getting to see more of it wherever and however I want. And yes, the less advertising I have to endure the better, I agree.
Mat, you’re certainly getting an education in many things while abroad, including the fact that the web ain’t always so world wide! A good friend of mine worked in India for the state department a few year’s back, and satiated his thirst for western entertainment by ordering DVDs and books via Amazon. I have a feeling that this was possible only because he worked for the US government. I did a quick check on Amazon’s front page and discovered that they do offer services in China — maybe this’ll be helpful, if not necessarily cheap?
September 23rd, 2007 at 12:27 am
The bootleg DVD market is gigantic here. This includes TV shows. I just bought the entire series of the X-Files for what amounts to about fifty dollars! Thats about 70 cents a disk.
They even do shows that haven’t officially been released on DVD yet. Like my sister had the first season of 30 Rock weeks before it actually hit the streets. True, it was obviously straight off of a DVD as it still contained whatever local stations ID bubble at the bottom of the screen and periodically you’d see animation for their upcoming shows, but there weren’t any commercials and the quality was good.
So I suspect for the shows I want to watch I’ll have an outlet. I was just hoping to watch them at the same time as everybody else. But that’s the breaks I guess.
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:54 pm
I would certainly be tempted to go off the deep end, snatching up classics like Buffy and The Shield and The Wire… but yeah, not keeping up with the latest and greatest would be a bit strange. Part of the adventure of living abroad, I suppose!