ABC (US) To Offer Free Downloads

[GhostShip]

I wonder how this will pan out, either way its a step towards gaining a wider following for a particular program that the viewer may have missed.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/03/06/abc_ad_support_tv_download/

ABC, the network that shows Lost and Desperate Housewives, is to make shows available to download free this year.
The downloads will be interspersed with advertising, meaning that viewers of the downloads will get 15 minutes of content interspersed with 5 minute ad-breaks, as they currently get on the TV.

ABC is hoping it will make enough money from the advertising to make the free downloading of content a sustainable business model.
Currently, ABC sells its shows through the iTunes Music Store for $1.99 a time. ABC is owned by Disney, and Disney's largest individual shareholder is Steve Jobs of Apple.

There are plenty of questions left unanswered by the announcement. Will international viewers have access to the downloads? We suspect not, since that would scupper ABC's deals with international broadcast networks. Will the shows be in HD? We suspect not, since that would cost an enormous amount in bandwidth and server infrastructure. Will you be able to transfer the episodes to portable players, and will they be DRM'd?

This is an interesting and bold move by ABC so lets watch carefully how matters take shape.

[Lysander]

Considering advertisements are imbedded in the broadcast that's free to all viewers, putting DRM of any form at all onto that would be about the most lamebrained and idiotic thing to do in the history of the internet. "Please don't file share our free product! You're making us lose 80% of the $0.00 profit we make on each download!"

[KM]

almost as bad as channel 4... putting DRM on "The IT Crowd", why? "oh no, don't SAVE US MONEY by distributing it via p2p, get people to download it from our servers COSTING US MONEY instead" - the funny thing being that even though it has DRM, you can still freely distribute the file without a problem, so the point being? lol

[GhostShip]

The point being that your rights of use can be altered at the will of the rights holder same as Apple does with the Ipod Drm slowly making sure the original agreement you entered into is wittled away with every downgrade.