CBS Hosts Ad-Funded TV Series, Incl. Original Star Trek 276
eldavojohn writes "On Friday, CBS launched a TV Classics section to their ad based online service. Which means that Trekkies can now watch all three seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series online at the expense of a few commercials. Alongside this CBS is offering all of MacGyver, Twin Peaks and even three seasons of the original Twilight Zone. A side note, they seem to work perfectly fine in Linux. "
Re:Outside the US? (Score:4, Insightful)
No thanks. I'll stick with BitTorrent, if only because I live outside the US, and it won't be available outside the US, for some reason.
That reason is copyright law...which, unless I'm mistaken, CBS doesn't control.
Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
This and Hulu make me very happy. It takes a bit longer to download than bittorrent, but I don't find the ads obtrusive (so short), the quality is good enough for me, and the option to stream live is handy.
I imagine they don't like you downloading it but sometimes I don't have tubes, and as the commercials aren't annoying I don't bother removing them.
Now if only they carried programming I liked more...and here we are:-)
Re:Outside the US? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's quite possible they sold the foreign rights to Trek long before the Internet came along...
Re:Outside the US? (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine you are an international TV station guy who just purchased airing rights of Star Trek and when you browse slashdot, you see this story, click and start watching the series you just purchased for $100K or even more. That is the issue.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:indeed (Score:5, Insightful)
well there wouldn't even be a startrek TNG without TOS and its "cheesy" effects.
Re:This is why I need a new computer. (Score:3, Insightful)
Be your own boss. Problem solved.
Re:Outside the US? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Outside the US? (Score:5, Insightful)
One problem is probably regional sublicensing, so it's more contractual than copyright, but there is copyright involved. CBS might have sublicenced the distribution rights series to other companies based on country or region, and they can't just violate those licenses. These contracts predate the popularity of using the internet for video, and they can't just go back on them without consequences.
They might have some problems selling ads for non-US viewers too, there's no sense in selling ads for viewers in the UK for products that are as yet only sold in the US.
Re:Gotta love TV networks (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Gotta love TV networks (Score:3, Insightful)
Nope. Ads are very time and location specific. They can't advertise the same things everywhere at the same time. Sandals vs snowtires, & Miami vs Minnesota.
In traditional media (TV and print), it is easy. But retailers and advertisers are still trying to figure out how to manage that concept in the online world.
Re:Outside the US? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do people keep bringing proxies into these discussions? Sure, there are lots of proxies available, but how many free (or cheap) high bandwidth ones are there? We are talking video here. Bouncing it through a bunch of low bandwidth connections doesn't leave you with a very good experience.
Re:Gotta love TV networks (Score:5, Insightful)
Or if that's not how it works, they could have a neutral start page and then have people select the country they're from and ta da, targeted advertising.
Re:Star Trek should be required in schools. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want internet video to continue to provide you a service you have to actually accept having to view the ads.
Re:I'm tired of TV networks like this. (Score:3, Insightful)
How do you get Hulu.com in Canada?
Re:indeed (Score:3, Insightful)
I suspect that Frankie Thomas and the other people who created Tom Corbet -- Space Cadet [wikipedia.org] would disagree with you, considering that they pre-dated Star Trek by almost 20 years. And, for that matter, Clark, Heinlein, Asimov, Smith and many others were writing it long before Tom Corbet was created.
Re:indeed (Score:5, Insightful)
The effects might look cheesy now, but they were much better than anything else on TV at the time. If you really want to see cheesy effects, watch the original Dr. Who sometime, or Blake's 7, for that matter.
Re:Gotta love TV networks (Score:4, Insightful)
Google makes billions of dollars on advertising. The international nature of the Internet has not impeded this.
Re:Outside the US? (Score:3, Insightful)
For the love of God someone mod this as funny. Silliest episode of ST:Voyager I ever saw.
J
Re:indeed (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't forget Harlan Ellison and Alan Dean Foster. They also wrote some heavy science fiction. Oh wait... I understand why you forgot them. They also wrote Star Trek script material.
But, you could have saved yourself some time and typing, if you simply reminded the parent that he forgot two words from the end of the passage you quoted. Those two words being "on television". Go ahead. Add them to the end of what you quoted. I'll wait.
Now, when I read what he originally wrote, I never got the impression in any way that he was challenging some of the greats like A.E. Van Vogt or Zelazney, or Asimov, or Heinlein. I got the exact impression that the parent wanted to send... that Star Trek had kicked Sci-Fi out of the way, and had instead brought Science-Fiction to the little screen.
The funny part, is the Wikipedia article you link to, has THIS to say on the subject...
"Before Star Trek, Tom Corbett -- Space Cadet was the most scientifically accurate series on television."
This is important, because the article YOU mention, points out the Importance of Star Trek and science fiction on television... and the article isn't even about Star Trek. If you read... actually read... with the Jungles on Venus and the Space Pirates living on asteroids, you find that the phrase "Scientifically accurate series on television" doesn't mean all that much. If no other show on TV was showing that gravity actually does work, the only show that did would be the most scientifically accurate one. Or rather, if Every show on TV is scientifically inaccurate, the title of Most Accurate doesn't mean all that much.
You are right, in that there was Sci-Fi before Trek.
ALL Hail You, for mentioning that there was Sci-Fi before trek.
Now, get off your lazy ass and acknowledge that Trek did FAR MORE for bringing science and real science fiction into more American Homes than practically any other source at the time. Because if you don't, you are blind.
Re:How much will sponsors pay for a dub? (Score:3, Insightful)
You're only including countries that have large populations that speak English as a first language which is about 375M. If you also include countries that have large populations that speak English as a second (or even third language) then you're probably talking (pun intended) about another 470M to 1B depending on how literacy is defined. A pretty good sized target market for any advertiser. Add in subtitles which are easier than dubbing and you can reach most of the planet without too much difficulty.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language#Geographical_distribution [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population [wikipedia.org]