Digital Home Thoughts: ABC's Streaming Adventure

"When ABC introduced a bold plan to offer free streaming video of its most popular shows with only minimal commercials, the network was entering uncharted waters (and we all know what happens when you swim in uncharted waters). The questions were legion: would people want to watch Alias on their PCs? Would the streams cannibalize television viewership? Could ABC make any money with only four commercials per episode? Well, the official results are in, and it looks like ABC has knocked one out of the park. In its first month of operation, the new service offered more than 11 million unique streams. Perhaps that doesn't sound like much, but compare it with Disney's (ABC's parent company) iTunes offerings. For the last nine months, Disney had made most of the same shows available through iTunes for US$1.99 (though these are commercial-free). In that period of time, Disney sold 6 million downloads—nothing to sneeze at, certainly, but nothing close to 11 million per month."

This is pretty cool, I'd not heard about this before. They offer Lost, Desperate Housewives, Alias, and Commander in Chief, so they certainly went with the big gun programs for trying this out. I could see it especially useful on shows like lost where if you miss an episode, you are literally lost. This gives the average viewer a way to catch up without waiting for the DVDs and provides an easier and legal mechanism for those tech savvy individuals who might look elsewhere to get them.