A few weeks ago I was reading about some of the problems Neilson (the TV rating company) is having. So many people are Tivo-ing, bittorrenting, iTunes downloading, etc. their TV shows these days, that Neilson’s job of reporting who is watching what when is becoming difficult. TV watching has become asynchronous. I myself download Lost each week on Thursday from iTunes and watch it on my computer.
So I was thinking, that because Neilson’s main purpose was to provide info for advertisers, there needs to be a new way for advertisers to target this asynchronous watching market. I though that someone should offer free downloadable or streaming shows with embedded advertisements. I’d sit through a couple of minutes of commercials in Lost to save $1.99 each week.
Looks like AOL had the same thought. Today they opened up shop with In2TV, an ad-based streaming web TV service. You can find a ton of vintage shows there. Stuff like Kung Fu and Welcome Back Kotter, along with a commercial or two.
What would be really cool is if they included the commercials that originally aired with the shows. I’d pay for that!