I gave the free TV shows on ABC.com a real chance last night. Here are some first impressions:
- The folks at ABC.com obviously gave this a lot of thought, from the UI to the ad model.
- The user experience has that Apple reflection effect to it, and tries to be very fluid.
- The advertising is… interesting. At the start, like the soap operas of old, each episode "is brought to you with limited commercials by" a sponsor. Like web page ads, the sponsor changes each time you enter an episode, and in one case, there were actually three sponsors.
- The "lean back experience" is good. The widescreen format and thick dark border around the content does give that movie theater sensation.
- There are several ad breaks during each show. The controller bar at the bottom of the window shows you where the breaks are, and if you try to scrub past one, you have to endure the break before moving on. On the upside, once you cross a break, its gone from the timeline.
- Some ads didn't load during the break, but the running of the ad is independent of the break itself. In other words, the break is 30 seconds, and in that time, the advertiser gets its shot or not. If the ad stutters or sputters or stalls, after 30 seconds you can get back to the show and not have to wait for the ad to complete.
- Advertisers don't have to use video, either. Suave just used Flash content.
- The episode guide is functional. I wish they'd give me the first season of shows. I don't watch Alias or Lost, but I'm interested. Why not start me at the beginning?
- Accidental clicks took me out of the current show, and I had to re-endure an ad to get back to the the scene I saw.
- I experienced several instances of stuttering video, probably because my broadband connection was just barely fat enough?
- Seems like media tagging is all the rage these days, so why not let me mark clips within a show? The most basic clipmark would be "lastplayed", which would allow me to return to a show in progress.
All in all, I'm far more impressed than I thought I would be. And yet there is so much more to be done.