The Jeff Pulver Blog: Disruptive Broadcasting in Motion: Disney offering TV Shows Free on the Net

« Spring 2006 VON Video Spotlight: James Enck | Main | FCC Seeks Comment on Our Post-Disaster Communications Petition: »

April 10, 2006

Disruptive Broadcasting in Motion: Disney offering TV Shows Free on the Net

The "Disruption" of the traditional broadcasting space continues. Disney is now 2-0 in my book for taking the first move in disrupting the broadcasting space. Credit Disney for being the first one to come out of the gate with a deal with Apple for iTunes and making their prime time shows available for whenever, forever viewing on an iPod. And while AOL's In2TV offers viewers access to "classic" programs (re-runs of old TV shows), according to the story in today's Wall Street Journal, "Walt Disney Co. plans to make much of its newest and most popular programming on ABC and other channels available FREE anytime on the Web, in a move that could speed the transformation of television viewing habits and help revive the struggling TV advertising business."

At the end of this month, ABC will be launching their own "Theater" on the Net where fans of ABC's hit shows who have broadband will be able to watch the episodes for free. This will be followed by similar websites for fans of the Disney Channel and ABC Family.

I've been waiting for a major network to make this move since I started tracking the "Disruptive Broadcasting" space last July. Kudos to Disney for taking the chance and for setting in motion a trend that there will be no looking back on.

The catch for the free TV shows? Advertising that can't be skipped. ABC is already working with a number of major advertisers to embed their ads into the programming. Eventually I expect that ABC will be able to deliver targeted advertising based on the broadband demographic of who is watching. It is just a matter of time. The only question is how many people will watch TV content with ads that can't be skipped.

Once the Disney TV portals launch, look for Disney to premiere new TV shows on the Net and provide the viewers with a rich media client that can provide instant feedback to the show's producers and other executives. It is now no longer a question of if, but just when.

It will be interesting to see what kind of deals ABC ends up working out with their affiliates since at the moment it seems that they will be keeping all of the on-line advertising revenue and their affiliates may want a piece of the action.

By leveraging the broadband internet to bypass cable and satellite delivery of similar content, according to the WSJ story, CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves says this "...could have dire implications for cable and satellite purveyors because it has the potential to cut off the revenue they receive for delivering programming. Making shows available online also could undercut the on-demand services cable operators are rolling out."

Now imagine if you are a Telco in the middle of an IPTV rollout. It is quite possible that your IPTV strategy will be disrupted even before you are able to light up your first subscriber, especially if all you are planning on offering is the same content that is available today on broadcast TV, cable and/or on satellite.

Welcome to the age of Broadcast 2.0 and the disrupted world of Broadcasting.

Tags: Disruptive Broadcasting, broadcast 2.0, Disney, ABC, IPTV, Jeff Pulver

(c) 2006 Jeff Pulver. All Rights Reserved.
(This blog posting is copyright protected by Jeff Pulver. Portions of this blog posting may be quoted or abstracted if attributed.)

Share this post: