Re: AOL to start filesharing network for WB tv shows!
- From: "SBFan2000" <weareborgNOSP#M@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 18:58:53 -0500
If its true they'll just screw it up like they do everything else. They
really should spend time getting their ISP working properly.
"Goro" <evilninjax@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1132000068.528407.83720@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/14/business/14warner.html
>
> My initial reaction is that this is an amazing plan. WB is buying
> into the existing and emerging technologies and attempting to provide
> customers with product they want while still tring to generate some
> revenue out of it. 1-2 min of commercials. Hmm?
>
> CBS and NBC in particular ought to feel downright embarassed and
> meanwhile even ABC might be feeling it.
>
> I'm interested in what exactly the form of these tv eps will be. Is it
> a streaming video? I'd guess so as they mention that the ads cannot be
> skipped. I'm also guessing from what they said that it will be better
> than the 320x240 res of the iTunes downloads.
>
> Now having said that, since this is still AOL/TW there's great room for
> them to fsck it up but it's a great first step and one that's well past
> due.
>
> -goro-
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/14/business/14warner.html
>
> Looking for "The Fugitive?" Didn't get enough "Eight Is Enough?" Would
> you like to "Welcome Back, Kotter" one more time?
>
> Warner Brothers is preparing a major new Internet service that will let
> fans watch full episodes from more than 100 old television series. The
> service, called In2TV, will be free, supported by advertising, and will
> start early next year. More than 4,800 episodes will be made available
> online in the first year.
> Skip to next paragraph
> Associated Press
>
> David Janssen in "The Fugitive," the kind of fare expected to be
> available.
>
> The move will give Warner a way to reap new advertising revenue from a
> huge trove of old programming that is not widely syndicated.
>
> Programs on In2TV will have one to two minutes of commercials for each
> half-hour episode, compared with eight minutes in a standard broadcast.
> The Internet commercials cannot be skipped.
>
> America Online, which is making a broad push into Internet video, will
> distribute the service on its Web portal. Both it and Warner Brothers
> are Time Warner units. An enhanced version of the service will use
> peer-to-peer file-sharing technology to get the video data to viewers.
>
> Warner, with 800 television programs in its library, says it is the
> largest TV syndicator. It wants to use the Internet to reach viewers
> rather than depend on the whims of cable networks and local TV
> stations, said Eric Frankel, the president of Warner Brothers' domestic
> cable distribution division.
>
> "We looked at the rise of broadband on Internet and said, 'Let's try to
> be the first to create a network that opens a new window of
> distribution for us rather than having to go hat in hand to a USA or a
> Nick at Night or a TBS,' " Mr. Frankel said.
>
> Warner's offering comes at a time when television producers and
> networks are exploring new ways to use digital technology to distribute
> programs.
>
> Many of the recent moves include charging viewers for current programs.
> ABC has started selling episodes of some programs to download to Apple
> iPods for $1.99. And NBC and CBS announced last week that they would
> sell reruns of their top new shows for 99 cents an episode through
> video-on-demand services. CBS is working with Comcast and NBC with
> DirecTV.
>
> (The CBS programs to be sold on Comcast include commercials, but
> viewers can skip them. The NBC programs on DirecTV and the ABC programs
> from Apple have no commercials.)
>
> Of the media companies' new experiments, Peter Storck, president of the
> Points North Group, a research firm, remarked, "They are saying let's
> take the plunge, put the content out there, and figure out how to
> monetize it." Programs on In2TV will range from recently canceled
> series like "La Femme Nikita" to vintage shows like "Maverick" from the
> early 1960's . Other series that will be available include "Chico and
> the Man," "Wonder Woman" and "Babylon 5."
>
> The company will offer a changing selection of several hundred episodes
> each month, rather than providing continuous access to all the episodes
> in a series, Mr. Frankel said, so as not to cannibalize potential DVD
> sales of old TV shows.
>
> And in the future, when Warner negotiates with cable networks to
> syndicate popular programs, Mr. Frankel said, the price will be higher
> if the network wants it kept off the Internet.
>
> For AOL, the In2TV deal is part of a broad strategy to create a range
> of video offerings to attract people to its free AOL.com portal. It
> already offers some video news and sports programs from CBS News, ABC
> and CNN.
>
> At the same time, it is creating programming aimed at women and young
> people, including an online reality series called "The Biz," giving
> contestants the chance to become a music producer, in conjunction with
> the Warner Music Group (which is no longer owned by Time Warner).
>
> Next month AOL will introduce TMZ, an entertainment news service, in a
> joint venture with another Warner Brothers division, Telepictures
> Productions. TMZ, named for the 30-mile zone around Hollywood that is
> mentioned in some film-union contracts, will mix breaking entertainment
> news and gossip with a database of information and video about
> celebrities. It will be run by Harvey Levin, former executive producer
> of " Celebrity Justice," a syndicated program about the legal woes of
> entertainment figures, which Telepictures canceled last spring.
>
> TMZ and most of AOL's programming effort, so far, have been built
> largely around short video segments, reflecting the conventional view
> that Internet users are less likely to want to watch full-length
> programs on a computer screen.
>
> Yet a recent survey by the Points North Group of 1,098 Internet users
> found that 28 percent said they wanted to watch regular television
> shows on their PC's or laptops, Mr. Storck said.
>
> Full-length TV shows on the In2TV service responds to that demand,
> particularly as more people hook their computers up to their television
> sets.
>
> AOL will offer a version of the service meant to be watched on a
> television set connected to a Windows Media Center PC, and it is
> exploring a similar arrangement to link the Internet programming to
> television through TiVo video recorders.
>
> For those who want to watch on a big screen, AOL is introducing
> optional technology that it says will produce a DVD-quality picture.
> Even with a broadband connection, most Internet video looks grainy at
> full width on a computer monitor, let alone a big TV set. The new
> option, called AOL Hi-Q, will require the downloading once of special
> software, and the program may not start for several minutes, depending
> on the speed of the users' connection.
>
> There is a catch. To use the technology, viewers will have to agree to
> participate in a special file-sharing network. This approach helps AOL
> reduce the cost of distributing-high quality video files by passing
> portions of the video files from one user's computer to another. AOL
> says that since it will control the network, it can protect users from
> the sorts of viruses and spyware that infect other peer-to-peer
> systems.
>
> AOL is using file-sharing technology from Kontiki, a Silicon Valley
> company providing a similar system to the ambitious Internet video
> program of the BBC.
>
> Warner is also adding shorter segments and interactive features for
> users who do not want to watch entire episodes. Each month, there will
> be a series of one- or two-minute excerpts drawn from the full-length
> episodes, featuring funny scenes or segments showing famous actors when
> they played bit parts on TV. (Brad Pitt, for one, had a small role on
> "Growing Pains" in 1987.) These excerpts can be sent to friends by
> e-mail or instant message, and will eventually be offered on mobile
> phones.
>
> Other programs will be accompanied by interactive features that can be
> displayed side by side with the video, like trivia quizzes and video
> games related to the shows. One feature, to accompany "Welcome Back,
> Kotter," will allow users to upload a picture of themselves (or a
> friend) and superimpose 1970's hair styles and fashion, and send the
> pictures by e-mail to friends or use as icons on AOL's instant-message
> system.
>
> "This is great goofy stuff that fans are going to love," Mr. Storck of
> the Points North Group said.
>
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