ABC has shifted gears — at least public gears — and will include four affiliates in the two-month streaming video trial that began May 1. One station each for Belo (WFAA, Dallas), Hearst-Argyle (WISN, Milwaukee), Cox (WFTV, Orlando) and Young (WATE, Knoxville) will feature promos and links to ABC.com’s test on their own sites; an ABC 0&0 (KABC, LA) also will take part. The affiliates will share the results with ABC; no word on whether the affiliates will get any percentage of the ad revenue based on traffic they drive to the test. The word “test” suggests that’s not the case.
From the press release: John Rouse, senior vice president, affiliate relations, ABC Television Network: “We are open to exploring ways to work with our local broadcast affiliates as we experiment in the digital media arena. Having these affiliates participate in, and share research from, this experiment will help us to best determine a successful model for all of our businesses as they continue to evolve.”
It may not sound like much but it’s a step past where the network and its affiliates stood as recently as NAB, when Terry Mackin, SVP-Hearst-Argyle Television, warned: “I know that ABC, if they want to, can extend a hand to their affiliates. The results will speak for themselves. If they’re going to do it, act now.” Mackin was responding directly to a speech made a few minutes earlier by Anne Sweeney, , co-chair, Disney Media Networks/president, Disney-ABC Television Group.
When I asked Sweeney about the affiliates the day the test was announced, she described that as part of the test’s second phase: “We really have to stage this in such a way that we are learning as much as we can about how our consumers are using this and how we work with affiliates and advertisers. The first step was the advertisers; the second step is the affiliates and we’re going to go on from there.รข
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments have been disabled for this post