You know how online video site Hulu is working to differentiate itself from YouTube by focusing on professionally produced video from TV networks? Yeah, YouTube's starting to branch out into that territory too now. CBS and YouTube recently began rolling out full length episodes of selected TV shows from the CBS archives.
Right now there's not a ton of content to choose from. Just a few episodes each of Beverly Hills 90210, MacGuyver, Star Trek, and The Young And the Restless.
Unlike typical YouTube videos, these episodes will include pre-roll and interstitional ads, much like the video ads you find at Hulu.
To be honest, it's much harder to find full length TV episodes on YouTube right now than it is on Hulu. A search for "Star Trek" brings up a ton of short clips that you have to sift through to find the 5 full length episodes. But if CBS rolls out more content and if YouTube signs additional partners, perhaps the company will develop a better system for finding TV programs on the site.
As Internet connections get faster, computer monitors become larger and HTPC integration become more widespread, watching TV shows online has become downright ubiquitous. In the dark ages, like three years ago, the only place you could get truly high-quality copies of TV episodes was to either buy the DVD or to BitTorrent the episode, you know, if one of the big TV groups happens to follow that particular show.
I love tvRSS as much as the next pirate, in the last 18 months, something pretty awesome has happened in regards to commercial television: free web streams. And the quality continues to get better, with each of the major networks offering some kind of HD-experience (iTunes HD tends to be better, but of course, you pay for that privilege).
So here is a list of all the places you can watch current and classic TV shows for free, online. Many of these sites have regional restrictions, based on country. Not to fear, in my next article, I'll discuss how you can access any of these sites (or any region-locked) site, regardless of your physical location.
Warner Brothers is broadening its online video strategy. The company recently launched a private beta version of a web site featuring WB television programs from years gone by including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, and Friends. There's also a smattering of original content. Now the WB has announced plans to spread the video love through a series of partnerships.
The WB will be launching two web sites, TheWB.com and KidsWB.com. You'll be able to watch videos on those two sites, but the WB will also be distributing content via DailyMotion, Joost, Sling Media, TiVo, and Veoh Networks.
The whole thing actually sounds an awful lot like Hulu, a similar venture started by Fox and NBC. While you can watch videos at Hulu.com, you can also find Hulu content at other online video portals like AOL Video or MSN Video. The WB already distributes a handful of shows through Hulu, but nowhere near the number you'll be able to find at the new web sites.
Honestly, it would have been kind of awesome if the WB had partnered with Hulu so you could find most of the content you were looking for at a single site instead of visiting yet another page to find a video. Fortunately, some of these partners, including Veoh will have partnerships with both Hulu and the WB, which means you may be able to find a one-stop shop. It just won't be managed by Hulu, Fox, NBC, or the WB.
First came pirated copies of TV shows being traded over the internet by fans the BBC iPlayer service which lets UK residents watch any TV program that's aired in the last seven days. Now the BBC plans to stream BBC1 content live over the internet.
The new streaming service will go live sometime int he next few months. The BBC already streams content from several of its news channels live, but this will be the first time you'll be able to watch live TV from the BBC's flagship channel on the web.
You'll need a broadband internet connection to watch. And you'll also also need to pay the same £139.50 annual license fee that you pay to watch television in the UK. Critics complain that it could be tricky for the BBC to enforce that policy, which means that television owners could wind up subsidizing the content watched by people who own a computer but no television set. But officials charged with enforcing the TV licensing policy say they have ways to catch moochers. All of which means that we probably won't be tuning into BBC1 over the internet in the US any time soon.
Comcast-owned media portal Fancast has announced that it will soon have full length streaming episodes of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and South Park. Up until now, if you wanted to get your Daily Show or Colbert Report fixes online, you had to check out clips with segments from the shows on their official websites, or hunt through YouTube. Fancast will be the first site we're aware of that will let you watch episodes from start to finish.
Comcast introduced Fancast last fall. At the time it was more of an IMDB style site with information about movies, TV shows and actors, directors, and other artists. But over the last half year, Fancast has added a decent selection of streaming movies, TV shows, and clips through partnerships with CBS, Hulu, and other media distributors.
Redlasso is a database stuffed with the latest TV and radio programming, allowing registered users to search for and "lasso" out clips in order to imbed them on other sites. "Virtually all media" (TV, Radio, streaming internet programming, podcasts) is indexed in almost real-time, says the Redlasso site.
Although the company swears it is negotiating deals with several content partners, it received a cease-and-desist letter from three major TV networks on Monday. They accuse Redlasso of creating a "business based on the unauthorized syndication of" others' content. Though it doesn't seem to be enough, Redlasso monitors all member accounts (to make sure no one's watching extended amounts of programming) to ease the minds of content owners.
The service is intended solely for bloggers and other web publishers. As a result, expect some type of application process when requesting an account. As for us, we're waiting on our acceptance emails. The service is free, but it is currently in closed beta, meaning its unavailable to the general public.
Much to everyone's amazement, Hulu doesn't suck. Seriously. When Fox and NBC first announced plans to get into the online video streaming business, a lot of commenters spent a lot of time talking about how silly it would be to take on YouTube. And then Hulu started showing full length movies and TV shows with minimal advertisements. The video quality is fairly good, and the content library includes things you might actually want to watch. Now, just two months after publicly launching, Hulu reports that:
The site has served up more than 63 million video streams
The average Hulu user watches 2 hours of Hulu video each month
Hulu is now the top network video site
Hulu has also launched a distribution deal with TV.com today, and plans to start streaming video through TVGuide.com, Break.com, Zap2it, BuddyTV, Flixter, and MyYearbook in the next few weeks.
Now for the bad news. Hulu is still completely unavailable to anyone outside of the US.
Apple has announced a deal with HBO to offer some of the cable channel's premium content through the iTunes store. Normally this wouldn't be all that noteworthy, but this is no ordinary content partnership. Apple has agreed to price some of the TV shows at $2.99, which is the first time the company has been willing to deviate from its standard pricing of $0.99 per song, $1.99 per TV show, and $9.99 to $14.99 per movie.
In fact, it was a squabble over standardized pricing that led NBC to stop distributing its shows through iTunes last year. not every HBO program will cost $2.99. The network is offering up Sex and the City, The Wire, and Flight of the Conchords for $1.99 per download, while The Sopranos, Deadwood, and Rome will set you back $2.99.
The move makes sense when you consider the fact that HBO charges $50 or so for 1 season of these shows on DVD, even though there are typically fewer episodes per season of an HBO show than you get from a broadcast network program. So we're hoping this isn't going to lead to a pricing free-for-all, with networks charging more for popular shows like Lost and less for shows nobody was going to pay for anyway like 'Til Death.
Do you live in constant fear that you're going to miss a new episode of CSI: Miami because nobody bothered to tell you that tonight's episode wasn't a repeat? You could just stay glued to your TV or keep your nose buried in TV Guide. Or you can just visit mytvrss, pick a few of your favorite shows and receive a note via RSS whenever a new episode is coming up.
The site features dozens of popular television shows. All you have to do is check the boxes next to the ones you want to monitor and mytvrss will create a custom RSS feed for you. Pop that feed into your RSS reader, and it's like having a TV guide that shows you only the programs you're interested in. Each item includes the title of the upcoming episode, but if you want to read an episode summary you'll have to click a link that takes you to TVRage, a site with TV listings, episode summaries, and more.
Microsoft released an updated version of its iTunes competitor today. The new Zune Marketplace adds TV downloads and a bunch of new music features. Here are some of the highlights:
The desktop application is integrated with the "Zune Community," allowing users to send messages and share their collections with friends
Ability to drag and drop a friend's Zune Card onto your portable media player
Gapless playback
Tools for editing meta data
But it's probably the new TV store that's going to steal the show. Microsoft says more than 800 episodes are availabe as of today, with titles including South Park, The Office, Heroes, 30 Rock, SpongeBob, Ghost in the Shell, Battletar Galactica, and Robot Chicken. Programs will cost you $2 per episode. There's no word on if and when we'll see movies on the Zune Marketplace.
Want to watch TV on your iPhone? Yesterday we would have said the best way to do this is to purchase TV shows from the iTunes store or transfer recordings (or downloads) from your computer to your iPhone the old fashioned way. But now Chris Carey has released a MythTV FrontEnd for the iPhone.
The application lets you browse recorded shows, check out program information, and stream videos from your Linux PC with MythTV BackEnd installed.
While Sling Media is considering developing a version of its SlingPlayer software for the iPhone that will let Slingbox owners stream content from their home TV or PVR to a handset, Carey's MythTV FrontEnd application is the first tool I'm aware of that actually lets you stream recorded TV to an iPhone.
You can check out a video of MythTV for the iPhone after the jump.
Apple's iTunes customers have the option of buying TV shows for $1.99 per episode, or paying a flat fee for a full season. Now, most of the time, you save a few bucks by paying for the whole season at once. But there was this little writer's strike thingamajig this year, which kind of threw a monkey wrench into that equation. Some television series, like NBC's Heroes had just a handful of new episodes this season, which means iTunes season pass holders got the short end of the stick.
But Apple is apparently trying to remedy the situation. The company is sending emails to customers who have purchased season passes to shows with abbreviated seasons. In a nutshell, Apple says that any show that's still producing episodes for this season even after the season would normally have ended will be sent along to customers. Additionally, if there are fewer episodes of the show at the end of the season than you'd been expecting when you bought the season pass, you'll get a refund for the difference.
Apple is also giving at least some customers free credits that can be used to download 2 TV shows, music videos, or short films from the iTunes store.
Online video site Hulu emerges from private beta tomorrow. Of course, we'll forgive you if you didn't realize the service was in private beta. The site has given away thousands of invites, and users can easily embed videos on other sites, which has led to a cottage industry of Hulu cloning.
Over the past month, Hulu says its videos have been streamed over 5 million times, either from Hulu.com or from other sites, including Hulu clones and content partners like AOL and MSN.
When Hulu launched, it was basically a content distribution outlet for NBC and FOX. For the past few months,. Hulu has been busy signing additional content partnership deals, and tomorrow Hulu will add content from Warner Brothers, Lionsgate, and a whole slew of other networks and studios including sports content from the NBA and NHL.
All the content is professionally produced. Hulu ain't no YouTube clone, it's a place to watch full length movies and TV shows complete with 15 and 30 second advertisements. We've been checking it out during the private beta, and we've been pretty happy with the selection and video quality. We'd be a bit happier if Hulu would make entire seasons of TV programs available instead of just a few episodes at a time. But that would probably eat into DVD sales.
NBC, Fox, ABC, CBS and the CW all make some of their shows available for free on the web. But you've got to remember which network a show airs on, figure out if it's online at all, if there are full length episodes, and how many episodes the network keeps on its web site. Wouldn't it be nice if there were one place where you could just find all the network TV shows available at once? Well there is. Kind of.
Prime Time Rewind is a site with links to most of the network TV shows available on the web. You can browse programs by flipping a cube from side to side to display network shows, or you can flip it up and down to browse by genre. Defying all known laws of physics, the cube appears to have more than six sides, as you can find a few shows from the TNT and USA networks, but for some reason The CW is missing.
Probably the smartest move the folks behind Prime Time Rewind made is to basically ensure that the site takes you to the original network web site when you click a show. You'll still see a Prime Time Rewind navigation bar on the side of your screen, but since you're also seeing any ads that the network wants you to see, there's no reason for anyone to sue the site.
Apple and the BBC could announce details of a plan to distribute BBC content via iTunes as early as tomorrow. The Register is reporting that a "TV industry source" says the BBC's content distribution arm has been working with Apple on the deal.
The BBC already offers a way to watch TV shows that have aired in the last 7 days using its online iPlayer video service. But the iPlayer is only available to UK residents, who pay for BBC content with their taxes dollars.
It's not clear at the moment whether the iTunes downloads will be available outside of the UK or not. On the one hand, an international deal would represent a new revenue stream for the BBC. On the other hand, Apple charges almost twice as much money for TV show downloads in Britain than in the US.
The BBC press office decline to comment on the rumor.
Update: It looks like BBC content is now available at the UK iTunes store, but not the US store.
