Disney to show popular TV shows online for free

[waheed]

New York - Disney is to place past episodes of popular ABC shows online, for free - a first for major television shows in the industry, the company said Monday.

Past episodes of Desperate Housewives, Lost and other Disney series, shown on US television network station ABC, will be viewable on a revamped website of the television station. New episodes will be placed on the site the morning after they air on television.

The move would make the Disney-ABC television group the first to offer its shows at no cost online. US broadcaster CBS also offers episodes of its popular Survivor series online, but at 99 cents per episode. A launch date for the website has been set for April 30, media reports said.

While viewers will be able to pause, rewind, forward and skip to chapters, they will not be able to skip advertisements embedded into the programme.

http://tech.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1154152.php/Disney_to_show_popular_TV_...nline_for_free

[ROF]

TV is finally evolving. This is great.

[dphirschler]

For once I agree with you, ROF. And I don't even mind the ads. They deserve to get paid.


Darryl

[whitejremiah]

yea, im gonna take a look into it, however i wonder what kinda video compression they are gonna be using...if they are gonna use something like RM or such garbage, im not sure if i really wanna be watching it, but either way, still a cool idea, and i think this is the way things oughtta be going with tv......

[dphirschler]

So apparently it is going to be streamed? This sucks. I officially think this will suck now. But at tleast they are starting to think about things. Maybe that is a road to improvement.

Darryl

[ROF]

At least we don't have download them and delete them.

[TBoneit]

dphirschler
: You could always buy a Tivo or a DVD Recorder if streaming bothers you and record them as they are transmitted.

Or you could go with the low cost option (Streaming) and avoid having to buy hardware.

Myself I have a Dual tuner, 2 single tuner Dish DVRs, A Tivo Standalone, And a DVD Recorder in the house. We rarely miss anything we wanted to see. OTOH I do have more invested than just my computer.

I'd have to say it is a viable option for those with out dedicated PVR/DVR/DVD Recorder hardware and probably will be popular.

The biggest drawbacksI can see are
1. Network programming.
2. More show obscuring adverts during the broadcast.
3. Probably lower quality and will most likely need WMP10.
4. Really bad performance over Dial-up, Yes I have customers still on dial up.

[jntaylor63]

IPTV is sloooowly making its way into the world.


It helps that more people are getting HTPCS too. I do wish there were MCE plugins for these sites. Same with google, AOL, ect.

The biggest hope is that it will also lead us to a la carte.