ABC's online experiment to expand in the fall

This past spring, ABC.com launched a online video player that allowed internet users to watch full episodes of some of their most acclaimed primetime programs. The free service allowed people to watch episodes of Lost, Desperate Housewives, Alias and Commander in Chief, all with limited commercial interruption. In fact, you would only have one sponser per episode. So you might have to sit through a 15-60 second ad between breaks, that's all the commercials you would see. According to new data released by ABC, the online streaming experiment worked - with great results. And as a result, a new version of the broadband player will come out in the fall with even more programming available.

According to ABC, viewers will see a slightly longer commercial inventory, but it won't hamper the "great consumer experience" that people were accustomed to seeing. In addition, episodes of programs will be available only four weeks after they originally aired. "Most people watch because they missed the episode, and that happens mostly within a discrete period of time," said Albert Cheng, executive vice-president of digital media for Disney-ABC Television Group. "Once you let it sit there, it doesn't get that much usage down the line." Most viewing of a particular episode was done within 24 hours of the original telecast.

During the two-month test, more than 5.7 million request for episodes were made and 16 million video streams were served. Each episode contained four separate streamed, which were proceeded by an ad. Not surprisingly, Lost was the most popular show in the test run, while Commander in Chief was the least-watched. Focus group studying showed that most viewing was done because users didn't watch the episode on TV. And a surprisingly large number of people - eighty-seven percent - could recall the advertiser.

By comparison, there have been six million downloads from Apple's iTunes service form ABC, Disney Channel and ESPN combined.

Not only is the ad recall percentage great for advertiser, the median age is demo-friendly as well. According to ABC, the average age of the video-streaming user was 29. ABC's average age during the May sweep was in the mid-40's.

No details have been announced yet on which programs will be available online when the service resumes in the fall, except that Lost and Desperate Housewives are expected to return. (Alias and Commander in Chief were cancelled and will not come back to the broadband service.) (Read the full article)