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ABC Video Player, Joost

October 2nd, 2007

ABC Shows

Over the weekend I watched two television episodes via the ABC website. They have a streaming option for several programs, usually made available the day after airing on broadcast television.

I have to say, the experience was better than I thought it would be. The biggest downside is commercials, which interrupt the show every fifteen minutes or so. But it’s usually just one ad and a “click to skip” button appears after a while. Needless to say, I found myself moving the cursor over to that button to click it as soon as possible.

I also downloaded the latest beta client of Joost. It’s up to 1.0 and the most notable difference from previous versions is a more complex channel browser. It reminded me of Adobe Bridge with little thumbnails for shows arranged in a grid format.

My biggest Joost-complaint is not enough content I really want to watch. They still haven’t solved that problem, but the extremely varied selection is getting better. CBS has added some shows (including Kid Nation which I’ve been wanting to check out), and there are more CNN and National Geographic documentaries. And as with the ABC streaming option, there are some commercials that come along to interrupt things.

Both options have questionable image quality. I tried the HD option on ABC, and while the image quality was great, the playback was at times choppy with some annoying stutters (probably more due to my connection than anything else). Joost is noticeably worse, and looks like a copy of a VHS tape, especially when stretched out to full-screen.

But overall, these issues are relatively minor in my opinion – after all, this is free television, and I may be willing to tolerate a few commercials in order to save a few clams. That’s the business model of broadcast television currently, and it would be amusing if Internet broadcast of television shows came full circle and ended up with an ad-supported, streaming business model.

The jury is definitely still out on whether this familiar, broadcast model is the future of online. Paris Lemon seems to think yes, while the New York Times is more skeptical. I’m leaning towards “yes” because as evidenced above, I find I’m willing to put up with a few ads in the name of free.

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  • I'll give some props to the TV networks. While they're still dinosaurs in many ways, at least they're putting some effort into figuring out how to integrate the web and internet distribution into the picture. I'm also finding some of the online games and interactive tie-ins to be pretty inventive and novel (the "virtual office" game that NBC setup for The Office, Dunder Mifflin Infinity, is a great idea. And ABC's "virtualrush.com" has had some serious traction).

    Contrast that with the music industry which still seems to be pretty damned clueless and resistant to change...
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