The Jeff Pulver Blog: Innovations in TV: Prime Time Re-runs Available on Demand

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February 12, 2007

Innovations in TV: Prime Time Re-runs Available on Demand

The 2006/07 Television season in the US will be known for a number of things, including the year the television networks started to implement their Internet TV strategies. For the first time, US based consumers who don’t own a TV or a tuner, and just have a broadband internet connection can legally watch prime-time re-runs on demand by simply visiting the home pages of: ABC, CBS and NBC. As long as someone is willing to sit through commercials, there is plenty of prime-time content to be discovered…and it is all available for free.

In terms of content availability, ABC, NBC and FOX are the content leaders followed by CBS. While still a work-in-progress, consumers in the United States can visit the home pages of ABC, NBC and FOX and watch specific full-length episodes of prime-time TV shows on demand for free. CBS on the other hand, while it has been promoting its own “alternative” full-length content on innertube, only offers access to a few specific episodes of their primetime shows.

A year ago someone like myself had to wait until the current season’s DVD of a TV show was released in order to catch up with all the episodes from that show. In 2007 this is quickly becoming a thing of the past. In fact, it is just a matter of time before all the major TV and Cable networks offer an on-demand viewing options for all of their shows together with the ability to immediately purchase just viewed episodes on sites like iTunes.

As Television Networks executives experience the Internet and evolve their strategies, I expect the “Internet Demographic” to be looked at differently than the demographic of the typical person who watches Prime Time television today.

A lot has changed in the world of disruptive broadcasting in the past 18 months and I expect to see more changes and more innovations in the next 18 months ahead.

I'm looking forward to picking up on this discussion next month in San Jose at Spring 2007 Video on the Net.

Tags: TV on the Net, Video on the Net, ABC, CBS,FOX,NBC, Disruptive Broadcasting, Jeff Pulver