AOL's big TV-to-Web venture goes live
Classic reruns find a new-media niche Wednesday as America Online launches In2TV (www.aol.com/in2tv), which will stream free episodes of more than 100 series such as Maverick, Welcome Back Kotter, Wonder Woman and Lois & Clark.
AOL's move adds to the frantic pace of Net-TV developments:
•iTunes, which has sold more than 15 million video downloads at $1.99 each since October, will offer condensed versions of NCAA men's basketball tournament games the day after broadcast on CBS ($1.99, $19.99 for a season pass). Apple's service recently began selling $9.99 monthly subscriptions to Comedy Central's Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report.
•CBS.com sells downloadable episodes of Survivor for $1.99 the same day they're broadcast. CSI can be found on Google's video service (video.google.com) the day after it airs, for $1.99. CBS.Sportsline.com and NCAA Sports.org also are streaming free live video of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, starting Thursday.
• Later this month, Cartoon Network will begin streaming full-length episodes of its adult-targeted cartoons on demand at adultswim.com. Currently, premiere episodes of shows such as The Boondocks and Aqua Teen Hunger Force can be seen online free two days before broadcast.
We're witnessing "the democratization of television," says Lee Rainie of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. "As we are able to store and play back TV shows, music and other content, programmers are in less control, and I am in more control of my playlist and of my own time."
Driving the migration of TV to the Net is the increase in broadband use at home: the number of home broadband users grew to 95.5 million in February, compared with 74.3 million 12 months ago, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
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