Update: ABC to Update its Player, Add Embeds (Kinda)
We’re big fans of ABC.com’s media player (especially Liz, who loves her Dancing with the Stars), and it looks like a good thing is going to get better. Perhaps seeing the success of Hulu, ABC announced that it’s updating its players with some new features this fall.
First off, you’ll finally be able to embed video on your blog or web site. You can even post video cued to select scenes during an episode. While ABC’s player was slick, it was maddening that you couldn’t post it anywhere. Allowing embeds is par for the course for any video site at this point, and it’s good to see ABC embracing it
Update: ABC further clarified its release. You cannot embed full episodes of shows, you can only send links to scenes within shows. So you aren’t actually embedding a player, you just embed a link on your blog that brings up the player. It’s baffling that ABC is not embracing it fully, given the success of Hulu. I have a call into the network and will update once I get more info.
ABC is also enabling real full-screen viewing; content will take up the whole monitor and no longer be constrained by a browser. The network is also improving search and recommendation functions and adding closed captioning.
According to ABC, since 2006 more than 300 million episodes have been launched through the ABC.com full episode player. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new player will be in closed beta this summer and launched in time for ABC’s premiere week next fall.
Recent
GigaOM Network
GigaOM Jobs Feed
- Jr. Software Engineer at LOLapps Media, Inc. (San Francisco, California)
- User Interface / User Experience Designer at LOLapps Media, Inc. (San Francisco, California)
- Production Operations Engineer at LOLapps Media, Inc. (San Francisco, California)
- Software Engineer at LOLapps Media, Inc. (San Francisco, California)
- Senior Writer at Zivity (San Francisco, California)
© 2008 Giga Omni Media, Inc. Powered by WordPress.com. Marketing consulting by ACS.
Another thing Move Networks CEO John Edwards told me new versions of their players will do is remember where you left off if you stop watching a video. That’s another feature I really like on Hulu. On ABC it’ll be especially nice because there’s so much rigamarole to get a show started.
Liz Gannes on May 22nd, 2008 at 8:54 am - Permalink
[...] and perhaps most importantly, the ability to embed video on other sites — or so it claims. NewTeeVee is reporting that ABC.com won’t actually allow for true embedding of content and will instead provide code [...]
ABC to improve its online video player. Hulu to still be better » VentureBeat on May 22nd, 2008 at 10:36 am - Permalink
[...] ABC should reconsider allowing embeds of full episodes of its shows. ABC programming occupies four of the top five [...]
Top BitTorrent TV Downloads This Week « NewTeeVee on May 25th, 2008 at 12:00 am - Permalink
[...] to see the light that is the power of online video. They haven’t fully figured it out yet; ABC seriously hobbled its new video player and NBC only allows embeds on certain content (it’s free-er with its [...]
CBS to Unveil New Video Player « NewTeeVee on June 1st, 2008 at 10:04 pm - Permalink
[...] an upcoming revamp, ABC’s outdated anti-embed policy for its TV shows doesn’t appear to be changing. See above a screenshot of how ABC content “appears” on Veoh, with a warning that [...]
Veoh to Get Paid to Link to ABC « NewTeeVee on June 22nd, 2008 at 10:28 pm - Permalink
[...] in 2006, ABC was one of the first networks to put the majority of its shows online, and although it’s since been surpassed on a technical level by Hulu, it still gets credit for being an early adopter. So it’s excellent to see the network taking [...]
ABC Catches You Up On Its Drama - NewTeeVee Station on August 15th, 2008 at 11:25 am - Permalink
[...] its new video player today, featuring updated navigation and full-screen viewing — but as we reported earlier this year, no full embeds. The player offers online HD streaming, which takes a second to kick in, [...]
ABC Launches New Video Player « NewTeeVee on September 19th, 2008 at 2:30 pm - Permalink