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Disney: Viewers Streamed 3 Million Shows In Two Weeks

Viewers watched ABC's television shows about 3 million times over the last two weeks since the Walt Disney Co. made some of its TV content available on the Web for free. In the Reuters.com report, Disney makes no indication that it was either pleased or displeased with the result. While certainly not a nominal figure, 3 million streams of four programs after two weeks doesn't come close to the 7-12 rating a new episode of "Lost" or "Desperate Housewives" can pick up in a single night. This just goes to show that Web-based episodes won't be replacing television--yet. That said, the service is far from perfected: I remember hearing reports that several users experienced slowdowns when trying to stream episodes of "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" the day after they aired. Even so, the 3 million figure sets the first benchmark for the demand for television programs on the Web. ABC began its two-month Internet trial earlier this month, allowing viewers to watch its hit shows for free without being able to skip through ads. Each online episode starts with a 10 second sponsorship message, followed by three commercials from the same advertiser during breaks in the program.

Read the whole story at Reuters.com »

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