Four seasons of "Lost" are already available.
(Credit: Netflix/screenshot by John P. Falcone)Several of ABC's top shows will soon be available to watch via Netflix's "Watch Instantly" online streaming service. The first four seasons of "Lost" are already available, and they'll be joined in September by "Desperate Housewives" (seasons four and five), "Grey's Anatomy" (season five), and "Legend of the Seeker" (seasons one and two). The deal builds on an earlier agreement to make Disney Channel content available on Netflix (ABC is a division of Disney.)
While most of these programs are already available for viewing online on ABC's Web site, the Netflix deal allows them to be watched on TV screens via a large and growing number of Netflix-compatible home video devices, including many Blu-ray players and home theater systems, some Internet-enabled TVs, the Xbox 360, and the $99 Roku Digital Media Player. The ABC content joins programs from rival networks, including Fox, NBC, and CBS, that have long been available on Netflix. (Disclosure: CNET is a division of CBS Interactive.) The online video streaming--available at no extra charge for Netflix subscribers on the $9 per month or higher rental tier--currently offers approximately 12,000 movies and TV shows.
As far as I'm concerned, this seems like another feather in the cap for Netflix. These sort of serialized dramas are perfect fodder for sequential online viewing. (The final season of "Lost" starts early in 2010, and Netflix subscribers who want to catch up--or start from scratch--can do so at no extra charge.) What's interesting to me is that ABC's making this move, which could potentially lower demand for sales of the same episodes on DVD and iTunes. One wonders how Disney board member Steve Jobs feels about it.
What do you think: Are you excited to see these ABC shows hitting Netflix, or does it just highlight some favorite shows of yours that still remain unavailable?
It's here, sort of. Several months after the big announcement that content from Disney's ABC Entertainment division would be coming to Hulu, the entertainment conglomerate's shows have started arriving.
The primetime drama "Grey's Anatomy" debuted on the video hub Monday, and more shows will roll out over the next two weeks.
These include, according to Hulu, consistent hits like "Desperate Housewives" and "Scrubs," along with more recent additions to the network such as "I Survived A Japanese Game Show."
Disney joined Hulu in April, giving it a joint stake in the company alongside NBC Universal, News Corp., and investor Providence Equity Partners. Shows from ABC as well as ABC-owned cable channels like SoapNet and ABC Family are on the way, along with movies from Disney (though no titles have been made available yet).
Would-be Hulu rival Joost closed its consumer video service last month after its peer-to-peer technology failed to make up for its tepid content offering.
My big question: When will we see episodes of my favorite ABC show, "Lost," on Hulu? I've e-mailed a company representative to find out.
The EepyBird duo's new experiment will appear on new ABC Family show, Samurai Girl.
(Credit: Eepybird.com)Can the team from EepyBird.com, which brought us the " The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments," duplicate their success with Post-it notes?
Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe, are the performance artists behind EepyBird. The pair will unveil their new "Sticky Note Experiment" Friday at the ComicCon Conference in San Diego.
As an example of how far Web-video fame can take you, the clip of the "Sticky Note Experiment" will debut not on the Web but on cable television. On September 5, the video will appear on ABC Family's Samurai Girl
Voltz and Grobe have had a good run with their Diet Coke and Mentos video, which shows the men creating a water ballet from the chemical reaction caused when dropping thousands of Mentos into carbonated water. The clips has been viewed more than 11 million times on Revver.
They've appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, The Today Show, and Mythbusters.
The financial rewards don't look shabby either. EepyBird gets a cut from Revver for ad revenue generated by their video. Grobe and Voltz had an endorsement deal with Diet Coke. Check out their site and it appears they might also have some kind of agreement with the producers of Samurai Girl.
I couldn't reach Voltz by phone to ask him about Samurai Girl.
Judging from the videos the two have already released, a copy of which is below, Grobe and Voltz are working on creating cascades of multi-colored Post-it notes.
Whatever it is, it has to be good to top the Mentos and Diet Coke trick.
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