At Engadget HQ, we
take great care not to trumpet the claims of a web survey, as it's always difficult to tell who's actually doing the surveying -- and even if we could, consumer surveys are all about a "what if" that may never actually come to pass. That said, it looks like
maybe ABC is conducting a study asking folks whether they'd be interested in a subscription to an ABC.com streaming video service, and
maybe that service might have a wide variety ABC shows, past
and present, fully on-demand.
Sound familiar? Interestingly, the subscription would seem to be offered alongside the existing free service, and both paid and free would have advertising, though reduced by 20 percent for those coughing up the fee. You can find a list of potentially potential shows included in the gallery below, forwarded to us by an anonymous tipster; we tried to take the survey ourselves, but were promptly rejected for our love of
FlashForward.
posted May 27th 2010 8:41PM
I can't see why anyone would buy this subscription.
Hulu rocks, no contest.
@Adisah
Oh you want me to pay a subscription so you can advertise to me on the five most recent episodes of a show that i can watch? Throw in the full seasons of some _great_ shows like Dancing with Stars, Desperate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy and I'm in!
@engadgethead
I think, no I hope I'm scencing some sarcasm in your statement because this would be a god aweful if it came to fruition.
@Adisah I got sent the survey too. They ask about pricing as low as $1.99 a month and as high as $4.99, so at $1.99 it could be worthwhile. Also in the survey they propose a per episode purchase that could be as cheep as $.50 an episode. I took some screen shots if any of the editors want them send me an email.
The main thing they want to promote with the subscription is having the shows up immediately after they air in your timezone vs 3 days later, and giving access to 5 shows instead of 2
@TheSteve Screw that, make a deal with HULU I'm not going to go to 20 different websites to only watch a few more episodes than is already available. These guys have to learn if you restrict this stuff we just won't watch it or worse we will pirate it.
This is not 1992, and I'm not going to do what THEY want, I'm the customer here not the other way around.
@TheSteve Also has anybody notices that this means HULU will get less episodes then it already does. So they make HULU, make it super successful and now they want to take it back.
WTF ABC? ARE YOU IDIOTS OR WHAT?
HULU WORKS - DON'T MESS WITH WHAT WORKS!!!!!
HULU + ONLY 2 BACK EPISODES = DEAD HULU = NO ADVERTISING REVENUE AT ALL
God these guys are idiots.
@ttringle
I agree...I don't condone piracy, but the old bastards running these companies just do not understand the world we live in. It's like they WANT us to steal their stuff!
I'm not going to pay a subscription for LIMITED content, and also be forced to watch commercials!! These guys are hysterical!
Thanks for the laugh abc!
@ttringle actually you are NOT the customer. The advertisers are. They pay for you to watch the show, in turn you have to watch their commercials. If you paid for a subscription then you would be a customer.
Hey as long as they have Modern Family and Cougar Town I'm good.
@abedinthehouse Read the thing, it says that they will reduce the amount of back episodes available on FREE sites (FREE AS IN THEY THINK ADVERTISING TO US IS CONSIDERED FREE) They get paid for ADS meaning its not FREE!!!
So now Hulu has 2 back episodes instead of what it does have, and once one of these morons does this then they all will. Except for CBS which doesn't even have a site like HULU. This is the company that owns CNET!!
What the hell is with these people. It's like they have never used the internet before. Someone needs to smack these jerks upside the head and explain to them what people want.
If any of you get this survey please use it to spit in their eye a little and try to wake them the hell up!
If they want me to watch it - it better be free :)
Seriously, there is too much to do in life to wait for a show to show up on TV. And if it's not on Hulu, well too bad
@SebastianR
Excellent point! Video games and the Internet have already reduced my tv consumption dramatically. Now they want to worsen the experience, AND charge me money??
The one and only tv program I would ever pay for, is a Yankee game!
Ok....maybe Lost or BSG, but their over! :)
@toptekjon Typo...they're over!
I don't get it, I only watch the Science and Discovery channel, but for people who watch Dramas, how will you discover NEW shows if you don't watch regular TV?
@Cheesus Crust
twitter of course
@Cheesus Crust
I think this is a great use for media applications like Boxee that have a social slant to it. You have all of your friends connected and see what they like and others like you like. Tivo essentially does the same thing with it's suggestions on other recordings.
@Cheesus Crust Wow, I can't believe you just asked that question on a website. I'm fairly certain you have access to the internet, no? Did you telex this post to your secretary and then she entered it into the interwebz for you?
Just WOW!
You want me to pay for the service and then Watch adds but 20% less than cable? Wow what a STEAL(for ABC).
@theinternetstom
I'm with you man. If they want to charge me there better not be any ads at all, also ABC's streaming service is really bad compared to Hulu and Fox with Fox probably being the best.
@Proghog Wow you consider fox the best, their site is almost unusable sometimes. Not to mention playing the same stupid ass ad 10 times during an episode. Then because it uses flash it locks up half the damned time and you have to go through the advertising again to get back to where you were.
Best! not by a long shot. HULU has it right and it rarely has the issues that the FOX website or ABC website does.
Can't believe these guys are still jerking us around like this.
@theinternetstom Your math is off. It's 20% less when compared to the free online streaming option, which is 65% less than the cable ad time.
So, ultimately, if you have 10 minutes of ads (for a 30 minute show) on cable, you'll watch 1.5 mins under the paid version, and 3.5 mins under the free version.
Having just completed the survey, I get the feeling they also want to start charging for the iPad app. They had a few questions about how much I was willing to pay for the app on a per-use as well as a monthly basis. After nanoseconds of consideration, I answered "$0.00 USD". If they did away with all advertising, that might change my answer.
//Sky//
I don't ever think I'd be that hard pressed for television shows. There's so much stuff to enjoy in this world that I would rather pay for.
Would never pay a fee unless they gave you access to everything. None of this Last 5 Episodes nonsense, not when you're paying for it.
I'd be willing to pay 5-10 bucks a month for unlimited tv shows in hd, but i'd have to be from all providers. I'm not going to pay 6 different providers 5-10 bucks a month.
@Nimer55 In the survey part of the setup was asking if you would buy this given that there were sites like Hulu offering a subscription that included this content as well as others at $10-$15 a month.
Wow, your really gonna reduce my advertising when I pay you a subscription fee a whole 20% ABC? Wow you really are the dreamiest... Um POS I have ever heard. How about you take your ads for a paid subscription and SUCK IT! I will not pay for content and be advertised to, those days are OVER. I told Comcast to take their cable TV subscription and blow, and now I'll tell you the same. You want to advertise, IT"S FREE AND IN HD!! Understand!!!
We get ads EVERYWHERE now, and if I pay for the content I will not put up with Ads again EVER! Get a grip charge a normal rate, and get rid of the ads. Or I'll just Netflix it.
"Commercials: ~15% of the amount seen on TV"
Wrong, try again.
This is a great idea!! almost as good as paying $20-$30 to watch a movie one time after it leaves the theaters, but before it hits DVD/blue-ray. im glad they have intelligent people running these entertainment companies. One question though: how much crack do i need to smoke before i can apply for a job?
@sroach23
well, for me it was 3 one pound bags... Dude, that was a crazy weekend...
Wow, a whole 20% less advertising? What friggin geniuses they have working there! Who cam refuse an offer like that??
What on ABC is worth watching?
I'm sad they didn't renew Flash Forward as well, especially after the great season finale tonight.
So am I supposed to pay this on top of my cable/sat bill?
Next week article "Over the air DTV signal automatically charges a monthly fees when you watch them" and "Why are you looking at me that way, your kid dress like a s%@t and had an apple tat on the belly!"
Here's the plan: Put all TV shows on one site, put the commercials in the program, allow it to be downloaded or streamed, put new shows up immediately for all regions, and allow access to all previous seasons and episodes.
That way there's no piracy, everyone is watching your shows, everyone is watching your shows with commercials, and now you know exactly how popular a show is because you can easily track the downloads.
How hard could that be? Everyone is already doing exactly that over on Pirate Bay, except they're not watching with commercials and they're not counting towards your ratings.
wow did i see ~15% commercial? you mean we will have premium commercials!? superb!
What does "on any device with internet connectivity" mean? iPhone? Roku? Many BD players?
No "Defying Gravity", either. But they do have "Day Break"
I really don't understand how they are getting this around their contracts with local affiliates.
One way or another, I think these kinds of plans are going to erupt into a legal battle along those lines.
Why the hell would anyone pay for something they can get for free? Just watch the friggin' show, or DVR or Tivo it.