Disney has enlisted ten advertisers in a test of its plan to distribute TV content for free on the Web. It's testing a new ad system, whereby it will show a single interactive ad during each
commercial break rather than a flurry of 30-second spots. The test starts on May 1, when the company will start offering streaming video of "Desperate Housewives," "Alias," "Commander in Chief" and
"Lost" about 12 hours after each episode airs here on the East Coast. An ABC exec told Reuters the company may lost money on the test, because Disney is only charging advertisers for the cost of
setting up the online player. The participating advertisers are: AT&T, Cingular, Toyota, Ford, P&G, Unilever, Universal Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures. Interestingly, each episode starts with a
10-second message from a single advertiser and will feature ads from that sponsor throughout. As with other Web advertising, consumers watching the same content will get different sponsors. Viewers
will have to watch or click on ads to get to the next segment of each show. Many are interactive: some offer coupons, others will have games. By May 16, Disney hopes to have two weeks worth of data to
present to advertisers when it announces its fall schedule.
Read the whole story at Reuters.com »
