• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, May 15, 2007

Last week, TV oracle John Malone said consumer hunger for HD content is booming, and he plans to make it a point of differentiation at DirecTV. On Monday, ABC said it intends to satisfy that appetite by bringing HD-quality streaming video to its flagship Web site.

The network will start to offer episodes of its shows this summer on an upgraded ABC.com broadband player in high-definition resolution (1280 x 720). The decision to stream HD content on the Web is an industry first.

It represents another signal that ABC no longer views television as content sent in a linear pattern through a living-room screen. For advertisers, the initiative and new player will allow for geo-targeting of ads. Creative can be localized and targeted to individual users.

The initiative launches in July in test mode with an HD channel on ABC.com's broadband player that offers full episodes of hit shows such as "Grey's Anatomy" and "Desperate Housewives." More HD programming is slated in conjunction with the launch of the new season this fall.

As networks increasingly produce more content in HD, they continue to lobby advertisers to do the same. Those pitches could gain steam with the advent of commercial ratings later this month, which could leave networks on the hook to prove they can hold viewers during a break.

Some viewers watching a show in HD are believed to be turned off by ads in non-HD that do not fill the full screen and offer lesser resolution. Thus, they may be likely to change the channel--negatively impacting those commercial ratings, part of the expected currency in the coming upfront.

ABC will no doubt press advertisers taking advantage of its online HD streaming to produce their ads in the higher-resolution quality. "This is all about innovating and creating 'what's next' to give consumers the best experience as they watch our content, regardless of viewing platform," said Albert Cheng, executive vice president for digital media at the Disney-ABC Television Group.