ABC Online TV a Success

The numbers are finally in, and ABC's free (ad-supported) online TV streaming was a huge success. In just one month, ABC had 11 million views of LOST, Desperate Housewives, Alias and Commander in Chief. Compare these numbers to ABC's experience with iTunes, where it took 9 months to get 6 million downloads. That's impressive, and shows a consumer willingness to view free content if it's ad-supported.

This also creates a new advertising channel for ABC, and they were testing that as well. According to the Reuters article on the subject:

"An online exit survey posted the first week of the
two-month trial showed that 87 percent of respondents could
recall the advertisers that sponsored the episodes they
watched."

You can bet ABC will be touting these numbers as it lines up advertisers for the relaunch of the effort during the fall. I'm still a little baffled about why they would shut this down over the summer. I guess they've got to do some thinking about how to spend all this extra money.

Link via JupiterResearch Analyst Joseph Laszlo.

Comments

[Cam Beck]

"An online exit survey posted the first week of the two-month trial showed that 87 percent of respondents could recall the advertisers that sponsored the episodes they watched."

Speaks for itself, doesn't it?