ABC streaming shows on AOL

ABC streaming shows on AOLIt’s fascinating watching the major U.S. television networks fine-tune their Internet TV strategies, in an ongoing attempt to find their place in the digital world. The latest announcement comes from Disney-owned ABC, who, as of today, will be syndicating a number of their prime time shows on Time Warner’s AOL Video property (WSJ).

ABC shows, such as Lost and Ugly Betty, will be made available for streaming — fee of charge — the day after broadcast, with up to four episodes from a series on offer at any one time. Ad-revenue will be split between ABC and Time Warner, in addition to a share going to ABC’s local television affiliates, with the amount determined through the use of geo-targeted advertising.

In keeping with traditional territorial distribution, AOL’s ABC offering will be available to U.S. Internet users only.

We’re clearing moving into a phase where the television networks are beginning to embrace a strategy in which they’re abandoning central online distribution and embracing syndication, and as a result are willing to experiment with getting their content onto as many platforms as possible, both ad-supported (Joost, AOL etc) and paid-for offerings (e.g. iTunes, UnBox, XBox Live).

Also see: 11 video download stores and Internet streaming: five U.S. television networks compared

last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

One Response to “ABC streaming shows on AOL”

  1. David Mackey says:

    Woohoo. This is good news.

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