Fox has released its “Full Throttle” platform which streams television shows over the internet.
We’ve been waiting for this since it was first announced in April (and further covered here).
It’s unclear exactly what shows will eventually be streamed (although we know some of them). The project is complicated by the fact that Fox has to negotiate separate deals with each of its local affiliates, and multiple Fox business units are involved (Fox Interactive Media built the platform and Fox Digital negotiates with the affiliates). However, shows are available on nine fox owned and operated sites now, and affiliates will be rolled out later this year or early next year.
For an example, see Fox’s Los Angeles site, and click on the “Fox on Demand” area. To view shows you must be on a Windows machine and download their player. If you are not in the Los Angeles area, you can still view the content by saying you live in LA - use the address “407 Maple Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90210″ (Fox Interactive’s offices :-)).
Currently available shows include Prison Break, Bones, American Dad, The Loop and Stacked. Recent and older content is available for all of the shows, and Fox will be adding more episodes.
A quick check showed no ads within the episodes, and a banner ad below the streaming window. Scott Grogin, SVP of Corporate Communications at Fox Broadcasting says that there will also be “non-skippable” video ads within the stream itself starting as early as tomorrow. (ABC is doing something similar).
Fox is also announcing that Toyota is the exclusive sponsor of the project.
My two cents: kill the ads and make this work on all platforms without a download. Also, give me a link to download this to my iPod. Duplicating what already isn’t working at ABC is no way to go.
>>My two cents: kill the ads and make this work on all platforms without a download.
get off the mac and into the real world…where your customer computes, with IE, and get into real technology instead of AJAX java script my browser;
don’t you have to download iTunes?
I have Macs and PCs…tried this on my PC. But the Mac platform is simply better.
So who will invent the online version of Tivo to skip ads first?
well we always have bittorent…
Good coverage. I would disagree with the part about killing the ads. Although giving away everything for free is popular, it isn’t sustainable. I would rather have shows like this available with ads than not available online at all (I’m ignoring the bittorrent solution for the sake of argument). ipod download would be sweet, though.
It’ll be interesting to see if networks push all their shows out like this eventually and whether they end up offering an ad-free subscription model (on their platform as opposed to 3rd party likes itunes).
Yeah but that requires some poor sap of a consumer to do work ripping and all that high maintenance downloading on a low priroity download if net neutrality isn’t maintained - speaking of which TechCrunch could be a center of this since the other folks are dropping the ball.
P.S. I sent you an e-mail
When will it be available for European viewers?
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Michael, what do you propose their revenue model be if they don’t have advertisements?
I was watching the NBC Office streaming shows tonight, and they have these small little streaming ads…I dont know about others, but I just hate those . I pay for Cable, and I would be willing to pay for TV on the internet…otherwise, i just dont know what the revenue model is…maybe product placement (as HBO does so well in Enterouge).
http://myfoxdc.com is also up and running.
I thought Ross Levinsohn had a MacBook Pro.
Very interesting, and I would think they’ve got the timing about right on this too.
Platforms such as the iPod, they will probably want to consider at some later date.
As a mac user and a PC user (windows/linux) I know one thing for certain: This will never be available off their website. They want to be able to control your experience. This is a company that is a member of the MPAA, pushing for the broadcast flag, VEIL, and any other consumer limiting technology they can get your hands on. Supporting their efforts to lock you in is probably a bad idea. If you ever want it to move from website only to on your ipod or whatever, you’ll have to prove to them (by not only not watching, but by convincing others) that their forced-ad-supported online model is not successful.
my two pence - destroy the revenue stream! give everything away free of charge. cos bandwidth grows on trees…
yeah, I hear you. But ultimately these guys are competing with media center/tivo with skipped ads (and free), and bittorent. You can’t just ignore the fact that the competition has a model that beats you even before you get out of the gate.
So sure, charge for the content. But also give users something they can’t get anywhere else. Safe and fast downloads to whatever device they want. No DRM. Take your dollar or two and call it a day.
Regarding http://myfoxdc.com, it looks like when you try to stream the TV series it checks your IP address for location and display’s an error if you’re not in the DMA market for Washington, DC.