Free TV: Stream it and they will come (Dinosaur Media Extinction Alert)

CNNMoney.com ^ | April 3, 2006 | Paul R. La Monica

[abb]

Online video has arrived in a big way.

CBS' March Madness on Demand offering, live streams of games from the NCAA college basketball tournament, has proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that people are willing to go on to the Web to view live entertainment. CBS streamed more than 15 million live broadcasts of NCAA tournament games during this year's March Madness, numbers that exceeded the network's expectations. CBS streamed more than 15 million live broadcasts of NCAA tournament games during this year's March Madness, numbers that exceeded the network's expectations.

According to figures from CBS SportsLine, the online sports news site of CBS, more than 1.3 million people signed up for the free service. These users visited the on-demand site about 5 million times during the first three weeks of the NCAA tournament and watched over 15 million live video streams.

By way of comparison, CBS SportsLine said that it had only between 20,000 and 25,000 users for a similar product during last year's tournament, when it charged $19.99.

Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media, said viewership far exceeded expectations, which likely made the advertisers quite happy. Sponsors of the online coverage included Dell, Lowe's, General Motors and Marriott.

"We obviously were fairly conservative in how we sold it and were really pleased with it. Clearly our advertisers got a bonus," said Kramer, adding that March Madness on Demand was a profitable venture for CBS (Research).

CBS's Internet slam dunk comes on the heels of last year's successful video and audio Web casts of the Live8 charity concerts by AOL, the online portal owned by Time Warner.

AOL also recently launched a site called In2TV, which offers free streams of old TV shows from the Warner Bros. library, including "Maverick," "Welcome Back Kotter," and "Wonder Woman."

[abb]

Much as the Wicked Witch of the West melted when Dorothy splashed her with water, the television networks, as we know them today, will simply melt away. This will happen by the end of the decade, in my humble opinion....

[dfwgator]

Go Gators!!!!

[sean327]

I signed up for March Madness on Demand and was very happy with it. I never had to wait more than 10 minutes to watch the game I wanted, never got booted from the server, and the video was good quality. If CBS does this again next year you can count me in again.

[doctor noe]

The quality was good with the small screen, however, the full-screen option was very wobbly. Still, I can't complain and I was able to watch some of the games that I wanted to watch. This was a great deal! I'm all over this next year.

[TomGuy]

Several movie studios are starting to get into movie downloading.

Trouble is, they are charging more for the downloads than one can purchase the DVD for:

For example, "Memoirs of a Geisha," from Sony, will cost $19.99 to download from CinemaNow and $25.99 from Movielink. As a DVD, it retails at $16.87 at Wal-Mart. "King Kong," from Universal, which will cost $19.99 from both download services, is being sold on DVD for $14.96 by Amazon.com.

source: Top movie studios expand 'download to own' services to Americans

[abb]

I just went over to the In2TV site at aol.com. Lots of old shows can be watched for as long as you want anytime. This is the future of television.

[Yo-Yo]

I don't think so. Someone has to create the content, and I don't you really appreciate how much equipment and personnel it takes to create a broadcast-quality basketball game.

Your local television station, however, may soon head the way of the dinosaur as the networks find more ways to bypass these tradtional gatekeepers.

[doctor noe]

Sounds interesting. I'll check it out. Thanks!

[Psycho_Bunny]

A little while ago, I had to stream a handball tournament my employer was hosting:  I simply couldn't believe the number of streams we ended up feeding.

[SamAdams76]

Trouble is, they are charging more for the downloads than one can purchase the DVD for

It's the early adopter phase. Always the early adopters pay through the nose. Then as economy of scale is reached, the prices drop for the masses.

[MrEdd]

It's the early adopter phase. Always the early adopters pay through the nose. Then as economy of scale is reached, the prices drop for the masses.

Yep. I was paying 25 dollars for CDs in Tokyo back in '82.