Disney-ABC To Distribute Four TV Shows Online

The entertainment industry may finally have conquered its fear of working with the Net: Disney-ABC Television Group plans to distribute episodes of four of its shows online during a two-month trial.

From May through June, current ad-supported episodes of Commander In Chief, Desperate Housewives, and Lost, along with the entire season of Alias, will be available for free Internet streaming on ABC.com the day after their television premiere.

Since peer-to-peer file trading program Napster emerged in 1999, followed by a host of imitators, major entertainment companies have seen the Net as the last stop before bankruptcy. Seven years and thousands of copyright lawsuits later, not to mention over one billion legal music downloads from Apple's iTunes Music Store, the entertainment industry is looking upon the Net with cautious optimism.

Under CEO Robert Iger, Disney has embraced the Internet as a distribution channel. Just 11 days after taking over from former CEO Michael Eisner last October, Iger stood on stage with Steve Jobs to announce that Disney would be making some of its content available for Apple's iPod.

NBC and CBS have been thinking outside the television box, too. Last November, the two networks said separately that they would begin offering certain prime-time shows as on-demand downloads for $0.99. And in January, CBS content played a staring role when Google announced the launch of Google Video Marketplace.Albert Cheng, EVP of digital media for Disney-ABC Television Group, sees Disney's rush to the Net as a validation of its experiment with Apple and of the viability of the Internet as a distribution platform. "With the iTunes model, we partnered with Apple to create a market where consumers were willing to pay for media," Cheng says. "In this move, we're the first to create a platform for advertisers and consumers who are looking for an alternative way to consume media."

Cheng expects Disney's efforts with Apple and ABC.com will encourage similar initiatives from other television companies.

AT&T, Cingular, Ford, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever's Suave, Universal Pictures, and Walt Disney Pictures are among the advertisers taking part in the experiment by offering interactive ads.

"The first thing we wanted to do with our advertisers is help them realize the potential of the Internet as a two-way, interactive medium," Cheng explains. "So what you'll see with this test is we've moved beyond the 30-second spot, and it's more about interacting, as opposed to sitting back and watching."

That's essentially what Disney and other entertainment companies had been doing until consumer demand and interest from advertisers pushed them into the pool last year. Cheng says advertisers were thrilled with Disney's plan. That's because many of the people advertisers want to reach are online."We're in a world where consumers have the power to make choices," Cheng explains. "And we're seeing an increasing number of consumers going online for entertainment. We need to be where consumers are, so the best way to do that is within an ABC-branded environment and delivering that to them with ABC.com."