AOL To Feature 100 Classic TV Series For Free Download
The New York Times is reporting that Time Warner is going to be making available for download over 100 classic TV series completely for free. The service, called In2TV, will have over 4,800 episodes, each featuring only two minutes of non-skippable commercials per half hour.
The shows will be distributed on AOL’s web portal (and presumably, on either MSN Video or Google Video if a deal is made) and an enhanced version (AOL Hi-Q, with DVD-quality picture) through a secure peer-to-peer file sharing network. AOL says that since it controls the P2P network, it will be able to keep porn and spyware off of it. There will also be a version for Windows Media Center PCs (woot!), and AOL is looking into some sort of arrangement with Tivo.
No word yet on support for portable devices, but I suspect that even if AOL keeps them off, the community will find a way. I cannot wait to download all the Welcome Back, Kotter I can handle.
(via Slashdot)
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Some final thoughts, I definitely agree that this will go a long way to showing the legitimate uses of file sharing networks. EFF rejoice!
Also, it will be a big deal which format these files are released in. If they go WMV, they leave out Macs and require conversions for iPods (unless they copy protect the free video, making conversion legally impossible). If they use QT, they leave out Windows Media devices. If they use DivX, they leave out all devices. I’m hoping they release everything in WMV and QT versions, covering the whole market and making everyone happy.
I hate the thought of this, but since you mentioned “non-skippable” commercials, I’m gonna guess that they’ll have to be going with a proprietary and/or DRM’d solution… otherwise one COULD easily skip over / tear out the commercials, eh?
Bummer. Personally, I sometimes don’t mind commercials in free stuff, but I don’t like the thought of more DRM’d stuff.
Comment by Adam | November 14, 2005
There are more devices that playback DivX video than WMV or QT. DVD players and handheld devices.
Comment by JV | November 15, 2005
JV: There are no players of the iPod/PMC families that support DivX. Some portables do, but as long as the ones supported by the big dogs don’t, another solution is needed.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | November 15, 2005