Watch TV Online - Review of CBS, NBC, ABC
So just how easy have the big three networks made it to watch their shows online? And how much of their content is available online?
The results are surprising.
CBS.com Rates: B+
23 primetime shows available. They try to steer you into small one and two minute clips. Full episodes are available for some but not all shows. Commercials on the episodes: only 3 placements - none in the beginning. Playability: good - you can mute, make full size, skip around. Can even mute the commercials.
But the small clips - they put a 15 second commercial in front of each one. Makes reviewing their content very hard.
NBC.com Rates: B-
Over 40 shows available. Lots of clips, but only about 5 full episodes are available for any given show when they do have full shows. Can view full screen; however the progress slider is not as good as CBS’s..having only a small line to click and drag. Bummer on the commercials - cannot mute (except for your pc’s controls). On the full episodes (boo) they start with 30 seconds of (unmuteable) commercials. In one case, a commercial for a movie opened a new browser window for the product - Boo!
ABC.com Rates: C-
Offers fewest episodes of any of the big 3. Pops up a special player that you have to install, following your reading and clicking Agree To regarding a license. Had problems on 2 different pc’s with this site. A full episodes starts with a 10 second voiceover about commercials, then a 15 second commercial (unmuteable) and in the progress area, you can see they have spots for 6 commercial breaks for the “43 minute” show - really the most of any of the big 3. Slowest to load too.
ABC’s presentation of commercials is unique, in that you can pause them mute them, fast forward them, BUT they still make you wait the full 30 seconds before the show is able to continue.
Quick Ratings and Comments of other networks
FOX: A-
They guide you right into full episodes, and the embedded player is good. Over a “44 minute” full episode they only have 5 commercial breaks. Commercials are pauseable and muteable, but they seem to be a minute long on the “hour long” shows. Yuck! If you pause the commercial, then restart you have to still wait the unplayed time. Half hour shows had 30 and 15 second commercials. If you watch more than one episode the commercial function would sometimes let me skip over the commercial entirely. Maybe they’re giving us credit for having seen pervious ones. ;) On a bad note, the player would goof up sometimes, and not allow the side button functions to work, without re-entering the site.
Commedy Central: A-
Lots of clips (fairly appropriate for this material), but not too many full episodes. Full episodes presented on a shows page, like for The Daily Show. Clips had 5 second silent commercials which were decent
ESPN: C
Pretty much just clips, but not very many. There are 7 clips “today” and about 6 per day for 5 days going back in the archives. Only good thing to say is there are no commercials…and they provide a link for THEIR commercials, which I’m sure many people watch.
Related posts:
- How To Watch ABC.com Episodes in Google Chrome ABC has a fairly unique player for their shows, and...
I had problems with ABC’s viewer using chrome and also with IE 7 but then I updated my flash plugin and IE started behaving better. Did you test with just IE or any other major browsers like safari or opera? When I switched over to firefox and made sure to have the newest flash player plugin installed, I didn’t have any major problems.
There are more an more TV shows online sources every day.
I’ve recently found that CBS.com has all the old Star Treks, so I’ve been watching a few here and there. When I first started watching them last week, for whatever reason I usually only had to watch a 15 or 30 second commercial at the beginning, and then the rest of the show was commercial-free, even though if I manually fast-forwarded by dragging the scrollbar past one of the dots I had to watch another 15 or 30 second commercial. Today I’m watching and every commercial is a full minute, and that’s on every dot, so no more going through the whole episode. There’s a big difference between 15 seconds and 30 seconds. And there’s a HUGE difference between 15 seconds at the beginning only and 5 or 6 breaks of a minute apiece. I guess I wouldn’t mind the five commercial breaks if they were only 15 seconds. Hell, even 30 seconds.. But a minute?? What’s the point of watching online?? It’s almost as bad as real TV! We’re only talking about bandwidth here. Are they really so greedy to get ad revenue that they’re going to get as close to the amount of commercials as there are on regular TV? These damn Lipitor ads are killing me. I don’t know if I’m going to keep watching Star Trek if these commercials are all going to be a minute long. BS. I mean, it’s Star Trek for god’s sake. It’s not the latest popular show here.
I http://watchtvonline1.com - watch tv onlinealot, lol some of my favorites are youtube. What are places
can I watch tv online.
Is it legal for me to have explained here?, and bank accounts? How to start? Can I move my existing business offshore
Thanks
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Frasier is my favorite Tv show of all time. Now I can see reruns anytime I would like to thanks for the World wide web. I Watch FlashForward Online. about the way to function, about the way household, when eating dinner and even while working. My loved ones thinks I’m crazy and actually wants me to see an individual. They believe I am addicted for the Web and particularly this show. I don’t imagine it’s that much of a trouble, but my wife certainly does. She got so mad the other night she threw a thing at my laptop. Maybe I do want help as I don’t prefer to lose my wife and kids. Tonight I’m going to ask her to make an appointment with an individual for that two of us.
My husband travels for any living. More times than he would care to count, his company has booked him into a hotel which doesn’t offer cable Tv. Last year, whilst surfing the web, he came across a site the allows him to Watch FlashForward Online. Now he has a thing to try and do on those nights when he is bored. This makes me quite happy as there have been nights when he would go out searching for a thing to accomplish. He would frequently spend much more out around the town than he had made that day. His career is to bring capital in, not spend a lot more than he makes.
For the past three months, I’ve been waiting for that DVD edition with the Frasier series. I’m even now fourth in line at my local library to receive these so I was quite excited to learn that I can Watch FlashForward Online.. My plan was to watch the DVDs within the train when commuting to and from work so I’m hoping I’ve Web access via the tunnels and stations on my route. My wife laughs about my obsession with this, but she is hooked on certain Tv exhibits herself. I’m wondering if I ought to tell her that she can watch her exhibits online also.
Frasier is my favorite Tv indicate of all time. Now I can see reruns anytime I want to thanks to the World wide web. I Watch FlashForward Online. on the way to work, about the way residence, even though eating dinner and even when working. My family members thinks I am crazy and actually wants me to see a person. They believe I am addicted towards the Web and particularly this present. I do not feel it’s that a lot of a difficulty, but my wife certainly does. She got so mad the other night she threw a thing at my laptop. Maybe I do have to have aid as I do not desire to lose my wife and kids. Tonight I’m likely to ask her to make an appointment with an individual for that two of us.
I love my new laptop. Not only can I play games and telecommute from home, but I can also Watch FlashForward Online.. With my perform schedule it can be usually challenging to watch shoes which can be currently popular so I often go back to my tried-and-true favorites. Frasier is one of those. I do not remember how I very first learned that you can watch these exhibits online, but nevertheless I did I would like to say thank you. Watching Tv is a single of my favorite ways to relax following a rough day inside the ER and Frasier is always great for a laugh. I want that extra regularly than I ought to.
If you folks want to watch TV on your computer, I suggest that you go to these places.
http://watchmoviesonpc.com/watch-tv-on-your-computer
http://justin.tv
I recommend that you go to these places.
http://bit.ly/cHzC97
http://justin.tv
Do you people know of any other sites where you can watch TV shows on your computer?