Television networks putting their shows online is all the rage right now. Some of them, such as NBC & The CW, “get it”. Others, including ABC, Fox, CBS, and many others, just FAIL, epically.

There are plenty of places where you can watch television shows online, albeit GENERALLY illegally. Surfthechannel.com, alluc.org, and hulu.com are all places that either host (in the latter, legal, case) or link to places that host (in the former two, legally murky, cases) television shows.  What makes a good online television site?

Southparkstudios.com, run by Trey Parker & Matt Stone, debuted a couple years ago. They put all of their episodes up online, playable for free. All it requires is a web browser with the free adobe flash player. While you’re watching the ~23 minute episodes, you will be interrupted 2 or 3 times, 30 secs each time, to watch a mandatory advertisement by one of their sponsors. A small price to pay for the convenience.

When I say that NBC “gets it”, I mean that they understand both WHAT the consumers want as well as HOW they want it. They put up full episodes, in both standard and HD quality, of the most recent 3-4 episodes of their popular shows. You can go there and catch up on Heroes, The Office, or Celebrity Apprentice (if you’re into that sort of thing) — you get to watch the whole show, free of charge, and all you do for them is watch 2 or 3 thirty-second advertisements. That’s it.  It’s pretty awesome.

Hulu.com does the same thing — I’ve heard they have the blessing of the networks whose shows they display (they do the same thing with ads too) — but they also feature a bunch of non-network video. High-production value DIY stuff, some bizarre picks from forgotten television stations, and other web-only content. It’s pretty cool. 

Now Fox, ABC and CBS? — they just don’t understand it.

First offense: With Fox & ABC, you have to download their exclusive player. They don’t use a flash player. Presumably this is so they can do extra things with tracking metrics or plugging more ads in — but it’s an inconvenience for the users. Why should I download a player that could potentially contain spyware (yes, they might want to spy on your traffic habits!), when I can go elsewhere and watch it for free?

Second offense: CBS is especially bad about this: want to watch the latest episode of Two and a Half Men or The Big Bang Theory? Sorry! No can do. When you view the page for a show you like, it mostly features just web-exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes content as well as a “best of” set of teaser clips from the shows.  I thought I had seen at least one full episode up there, but in looking now, the longest clip I see is a 5 minute behind-the-scenes clip. Why not put the shows up online?

Now, there might be contractual reasons why the companies don’t put up the full episodes — I know SouthParkStudios occasionally can’t show some of their episodes online until a month or so after the airdate — but they tell you that! I can respect these issues, but I appreciate being told that that is why the episodes aren’t there.

It might also be a cost issue — I imagine streaming that much bandwidth through can get pricey — but think of the advertising possibilities! It is not possible to fast forward, or “TiVo and skip the ads” — and best of all, the ads are so short that I really don’t mind sitting through them. How much do you think Nissan or Ford would pay to guarantee that their ads are shown three times during EVERY viewing of a particular show? (not to mention the interaction possibilities — that’s a neat feature I’ve noticed with these ads — since it’s a flash player, you can interact with the car being shown in the ad. Sort of “Advertising 2.0″)

It bewilders me that Fox and ABC would shoot themselves in the foot like that just because they want to be in control of how their users watch their show. Give it up already. The whole “DRM” thing is so five years ago. And CBS? Get with the program.

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