CBS goes mental, pulls full episodes
Fans of CBS’ new shows “The Mentalist” and “Eleventh Hour” are letting the network have it after full episodes were suddenly removed from cbs.com
“You’re losing viewers like me,” one “Mentalist” viewer warned the network on the program-specific message boards. Another griped: “Why tune in to CBS shows when the other networks offer full episodes?”
CBS provided no explanation for halting free stream versions of these shows, and doesn’t seem to have anyone moderating its fan forums to put out flareups. Sloppy on both counts.
“I don’t get why CBS is still showing full episodes for some shows but not others,” another fan asked.
Great question. Why any network is withholding full streams of any primetime show remains a mystery these days. There is a clear sense of entitlement out there among online viewers. Clips and “recaps” aren’t cutting it.
Networks, understandably, are experimenting with different programming models, but jerking around loyal online viewers without the least bit of communication is inexcusable.
An interesting hypothesis after reading through the complaints about “The Mentalist” and “Eleventh Hour”: Looks like a good number of viewers have trashed their VCRs but haven’t adopted DVRs, leaving them dependent on network online streaming when they miss an episode.
iTunes adds Fox to high-def lineup
The iTunes store has added Fox network programming to its high-definition fare, meaning Apple’s online video service now stocks HD primetime shows from all big four networks.
The new Fox shows include “Bones,” “House,” “Prison Break” and “Sons of Anarchy” (from FX).
Apple said more than 1 million HD episodes have been purchased since the launch of HD programming on iTunes last month. A total of 2 million were viewed, including the package of freebies from NBC Universal.
Unimpressed, TV by the Numbers crunched some of the numbers and found that with iTunes’ catalog of 30,000 TV episodes, the total figure translates into an average of 6,666 downloads per episode sold. We’re a bit more generous, subscribing to the long-tail theory.
Here are some numbers from the TAMi measuring service: The new “Knight Rider” (given away free on iTunes) ranked as the biggest NBC show, with more than 97,000 downloads (includes minimal Amazon figures). Mega-hit “Heroes” was close behind with 94,000 for the same number of episodes (three). Props to NBC for releasing the data.
Of course, most of these shows can be found elsewhere on the Web for free, even in HD. Ads can and will dilute the viewing experience.
iTunes episodes go for $2.99 an episode ($1.99 in standard definition). “Season passes”on selected shows offer volume discounts.
Here comes that canned Apple quote, right about here:
“We’ve got an incredible Fall 2008 TV lineup with over 70 primetime comedies and dramas, including many of the most popular shows on TV in stunning HD,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “With over 200 million episodes sold, iTunes customers have proven they love watching television on their computer, iPod, iPhone and TV with Apple TV.”
The list of HD programs now available on the iTunes Store includes ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Dirty Sexy Money,” “Eli Stone,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Life on Mars,” “Lost,” “Private Practice,” “Samantha Who?” and “Ugly Betty.” CBS programming includes “CSI,” “CSI: Miami,” “CSI: New York,” “NCIS” and “Numb3rs.” FOX shows include “Bones,” “House,” “Prison Break” and “Sons of Anarchy,” which airs on FX. NBC shows include “30 Rock,” “Heroes,” “Kath & Kim,” “Knight Rider,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Life,” “Lipstick Jungle,” “My Own Worst Enemy” and “The Office,” and SCI FI Channel’s “Battlestar Galactica” and “Eureka,” and USA Network’s “In Plain Sight,” “Monk,” “Psych” and “The Starter Wife.”
YouTube gets CBS oldies in a full stream
YouTube and CBS have teamed up to stream full-length versions of off-the-air shows such as “Star Trek” and the original “Beverly Hills 90210.”
The CBS online video player seems similar to, you guessed it, Hulu’s widely admired player. In “Theater” mode, the player streams full-screen (TV ratio) images at about 490 pixels wide. There appears to be space for widescreen presentations.
To identify the complete shows, the episode promo modules have a small badge with an image of a film strip. (For those challenged by the numeric difference between 57 minutes and 2 minutes, perhaps?)
YouTube and CBS told Reuters they would sell ads around the shows, in a revenue-sharing arrangement. A couple of the episodes are opening with the widely disliked preroll ads that march before the start of the content. There also are multipe in-stream ads, some simply repeated.
YouTube’s decision to open the door to prerolls hasn’t sat well with its audience, which is used to user-initiated spots, if any.
Also running on YouTube are complete episodes of “MacGyver” and “The Young and the Restless.” The primetime shows have five available episodes at this point, the soap has 14.
cbs.com offers full streaming video episodes of “How I Met Your Mother,” “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “CSI: Miami” –similar content is spread about other CBS partner sites.
Fey’s Palin video hits 6 mil on NBC.com
To no one’s surprise, that “Saturday Night Live” skit with Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton has logged about 6 million views on NBC.com. (Some, however, were surprised to learn “SNL” was still on the air.)
That makes it NBC.com’s most-watched clip ever, swamping the previous champ “Dick in a Box” (with a mere 1 million views), the Hollywood Reporter says in a story about the monster week for online news and video. NBC.com’s meter says the count is 4.3 million, but there’s probably another version running around the site. Or they’re, like, really dumb liars.
NBC Universal rushed out the take-down order to YouTube as word spread about Tina Fey’s dead-on impersonation. There were a couple of crappy versions up on the ‘Tube as of Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, Apple and NBC reported that iTunes has racked up more than a million downloads for NBC Universal fare since the Sept. 9 return of Peacock content, some of it free.
Here’s the embed, all legal and nice, straight from NBC.com — anyone tired of this yet?
Barack Obama: Live on NBC, somehow
Time for the thanks of a grateful nation to go to the Peacock Network and Jeff Zucker, the president and CEO of NBC Universal.
Despite great temptation, Zucker and Co. decided not to tape delay Barack Obama’s historic nomination speech for West Coast viewers.
Sure, NBC could have just plastered a “Live” notice on the delayed broadcast — hey, it worked just swell during the Olympics. But this time out, NBC went with actual events in actual real time. Take a bow, Zucker.
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Microsoft’s Silverlight video platform went straight from its exclusive online debut on NBC’s Olympics site to an exclusive online encore on the Democratic National Convention’s site.
Again, owners of PowerPC-based Macs users were shut out if they wanted the latest and greatest video stream — as in real time, in high def.
Why the hell would the Democratic Party — of all organizations — limit its online video content to an proprietary and exclusionary technology when many all-access solutions were available? No mystery: Microsoft money doesn’t talk, it screams.
You got it: Microsoft was “the Official Software and HD web content provider” for the DNC.
At least this sellout didn’t reek as much as the Olympics online video deal. This time, there were other live feeds (of lesser quality) on CNN.com, C-SPAN.org and several other nets.
UstreamTV had an “unofficial” stream of the DNC and is the official RNC online video provider. “Anyone with computer and Internet access will be guaranteed a front-row seat to history,” Ustream vows. Now that’s American.
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ESPN wants the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games, a possibility that’ll have sports fans cheering. Here’s what ESPN exec vp for content John Skipper told the New York Times about NBC and its tape-delay shenanigans:
“Our DNA is different than theirs. We serve sports fans. It’s hard in our culture to fathom tape-delaying in the same way they have. I’m not suggesting it wasn’t the smart thing for them to do, but it’s not our culture.”
Skipper reminded the Times that if ESPN had the Olympics TV rights, it would employ the ABC network, multiple ESPN cable nets, espn.com and extensive video-streaming outlets. “There’s nothing that NBC has that we don’t have the assets to replicate and do better,” he said.
Let’s make the leap of faith that doing better means ESPN will, at least, apply basic news judgment.
Our pals over at Sports Couch Potato examined this mess and declared: “It’s clear the days of the taped-delayed Olympics have become a thing of the past.” You gotta believe.