When is a commercial must-see TV? In my house, it’d be whenever a Mucinex ad hits the airwaves. (Quick! Press pause! That funny little blob of phlegm and his bride are on again!) But let’s be honest, in a Tivo/DVR world, it’s getting harder and harder for advertisers to find a captive audience. Which makes ABC’s latest initiative kind of genius. Next month, the network will begin a two-month trial in which viewers can watch free episodes of Lost, Desperate Housewives, Alias, and Commander in Chief on their website the day after an episode has aired. Viewers will be able to pause, but won’t be able to fast-forward through the commercials embedded in each episode. Or, to paraphrase Mr. Mucus: They’re not goin’ anywhere!
Apr 10
2006
10:41 PM ET
ABC will offer free 'Lost,' 'Housewives' episode downloads
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I hope this idea takes off…it beats scanning Limewire constantly for Lost episodes and winding up with ones from season 1!
What a brilliant idea!
Too bad they arent airing Grey’s Anatomy too!!
I love me some downloaded Lost.
If you can’t fast-forward through the commercials, why not just watch it on TV on the regular night?
Alls I can say is, for a Sailor who can’t seem to beat the meatheads who hog the common room tv on the ship or in the barracks (constantly bombarding my brain with ESPN or BET), it’s about damn time. I haven’t seen a lick of anything this season, and I’m sad. I have to watch it all in reruns, or rent/buy the DVDs.
i know some networks in other countries offer past episodes of their tv shows online. i really hope this takes off in the u.s. you don’t have to worry about whether or not you set the vcr or tivo right (or whether or not it somehow messed up the recording), and for those of us who live abroad – we can catch up on all the episodes of our favorite american programs. this is a great idea! more networks should pick up on this!
To avoid the commericals, it’s still worth the $1.99/ep price from iTunes. (Now if Apple would hurry up and release an fancy iTablet so I don’t go blind watching videos on my iPod.)
…but will it be Mac compatible? Comedy Central, AOL, MTV, and other sites already offer free video clips or full shows, but they use Microsoft’s DRM scheme and require Windows XP and Windows Media Player 9/10. The OS X version of Windows Media Player has been dead for several years and never had support for DRM (not to mention many other things), so the chances of people like me getting to download and watch some shows for free *legally* are nil.
Most of the times I download TV show episodes it’s because I somehow missed it when it aired or so that I can watch a good episode again while I wait for it to become available on DVD, so it doesn’t make sense for me to pay $2 for something I don’t want to keep forever!
BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COMMERCIALS SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Because some of us don’t live in the States and are too imaptient to wait for new episodes of the series to begin! (In Hong Kong, the last first run episode of Lost was “The Other 48 Days” which was broadcasted in the States ages ago!)
It’s brilliant. If you hate commercials so much, just Tivo it the first time around (or use a VCR and FF), and if not, fork out the $1.99 lazy cheapo. Everybody’s got to pay for great entertainment somehow (or else we get crap like NCIS or Yes Dear).
Free downloads is always cool. But why not find ways to work with dvrs? Local newscasters put 3 second snippits at the end of the ads which get caught by the “8 second” button. There’s gotta be a premium for having your 3 second ad just before the show starts up again, right?
This is good news for my Lost fixation.
i’ve got a preview for tonight’s LOST episode if you’re interested:
http://peopleofpaper.blogspot.com/2006/04/lost-those-pesky-traps.html
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does anyone of you have the full episodes of Prison Break season4?