Warner Brothers is preparing a major new Internet service that will let fans watch full episodes from more than 100 old television series.
The service, called In2TV, will be free, supported by advertising, and will start early next year. More than 4,800 episodes will be made available online in the first year.
The move will give Warner a way to reap new advertising revenue from a huge trove of old programming that is not widely syndicated.
Programs on In2TV will have one to two minutes of commercials for each half-hour episode, compared with eight minutes in a standard broadcast. The Internet commercials cannot be skipped.
“Cannot be skipped?” We’ll have to get to work on that.
America Online, which is making a broad push into Internet video, will distribute the service on its Web portal. Both it and Warner Brothers are Time Warner units. An enhanced version of the service will use peer-to-peer file-sharing technology to get the video data to viewers.
Warner, with 800 television programs in its library, says it is the largest TV syndicator. It wants to use the Internet to reach viewers rather than depend on the whims of cable networks and local TV stations, said Eric Frankel, president of Warner’s domestic cable distribution division.
Warner’s offering comes as television producers and networks are exploring new ways to use digital technology to distribute programs.
Many of the recent moves include charging viewers for current programs. The U.S. network ABC has started selling episodes of some programs to download to Apple iPods for $1.99. And the networks NBC and CBS announced last week that they would sell reruns of their top new shows for 99 cents an episode through video-on-demand services. CBS is working with Comcast and NBC with DirecTV.
The CBS programs to be sold on Comcast include commercials, but viewers can skip them. The NBC programs on DirecTV and the ABC programs from Apple have no commercials.
Maybe this is a positive sign these dorks have finally recognized they should join the 21st Century. Reruns of “Chico and the Man” don’t make the hairs stand up on my neck — though “Babylon 5” might be fun.
Some of the networks promise short commercials or none; but, does anyone think they won’t get greedy if the model starts out working? Plus — most of this will be crap I didn’t watch the first time ‘round. Who has a business model that will get indies online?
I am so looking forward to this! Finally! Now I may watch some TV Shows.
Thank you guys!
Jo An
I like the shadow ship! I’d hate to see one of those outside of my window in the morning.
Some commercials are more creative than some of the shows that have been on TV. If they use commercials that don’t insult one’s intelligence I might watch it for the commercials.
I also like the fact that they are challenging the geeks of the world.
“Cannot be skipped? Hmmm”
We have to keep our geeks sharp!
What TV show is that picture from? I can’t remember
Rob, the image is from Babylon 5.
The Yahoo/TiVo deal will have broader appeal. It will be simpler for the masses, and having programming delivered to you living room TV will attract the majority of viewers who don’t use computers or portable devices for video. You have to wonder how the big cable providers are looking at this, and will it push video on demand to set top boxes quickly. The whole idea may be a way to increase syndication fees by threat.
Perhaps the commercials could be from the same time periods. I almost miss the tap dancing Lucky Strike boxes, ads for cars with fins, and the hammer banging Anacin treasure.
This is a great way to sneak cigarette ads back in front of viewers. If they use the genuine old ads – they can even target children’s and adolescent programming.
I wonder how unresponsive the Internet will become now – with all this gorp being downloaded.
Agreed on the Yahoo!/TiVo comment. While you can download and watch tv and movies in the same way you can access music, it is not the prefered delivery method. Sitting on the couch and using the remote is; Integrate it into the cable/sattelite box and you have something. Hell, few are biting on the HTPC concept (something I’ve tried and abandoned), so what makes them think this will work?