ABC Offers Free Downloads of Prime-Time Shows
Someone in TV-land is finally getting a clue:
“Mike Shaw [ABC president ad sales and marketing] announced today we are going to take a product to market in May. Viewers will have the ability to access shows such as “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” on ABC.com. They will be ad supported, free to the consumer.” Ads that accompany the video offering would not necessarily be the same as those that appeared alongside ABC’s hit programming, he said.
A genius move that gives advertisers the kind of metrics they can only dream about in Nielsens-land while tossing free candy to any loyal viewers of their shows. Who needs a Tivo to record missed episodes? Who needs to spend $400 on an iPod to watch episodes from iTunes? If we get TV free because of ad-support why not do the same for downloads. Will people rip ads out of the episodes and post them to all the P2P or video distribution web sites? Of course, but they would have done that anyways.
Good job ABC, it looks like Steve Jobs is already having an effect on you.
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