ABC Video Player Goes HD
ABC became the first network to roll out HD quality video online. And while they’re sure to be paying substantial bandwidth fees, the result as you can see below is pretty impressive.
The video shown above is VP7, running at the peak bitrate of 2,020k. The bandwidth meter in the lower right corner adjusts the bitrate to end-user capacity and fluctuates during play. Because it is progressive download, assisted by the Move Networks plugin, playback is very smooth but also highly taxing on the CPU.
While I’m a fan of this from a viewer standpoint, my biggest question is how can they afford to do this? Sure Move Networks is theoretically taking some of the load off of the CDN, but the economics are still hard to swallow.
At 2MBps, a 50 minute show like Lost will be a 6 Gigabyte 750 MB download. Assuming bandwidth charges of $.10/Gb (very low, but they’re ABC) this will run $.075 per (full) stream viewed. If 25,000 viewers watch that’s nearly $2,000 ABC shells out just in bandwidth fees.
When you consider all the costs, even with big-spending sponsors, it’s difficult to see ad-supported HD video online being profitable, at least in the near term. But I hope they prove me wrong.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Who cares about HD if it won’t play? Last season I watched online. Now I can’t get two seconds without the video stuttering… What are ABC’s bandwidth fees if I try three times to watch, get pissed off ten seconds in (when things start to skip), then log off and never watch again?
February 9th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Jesse, I would bet that your issues are technical in nature and related either to your computer or your network connection. If anyone else has had issues like this, let us know.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
[...] It’s something big media companies need to work on. While ABC is ahead of the curve in their online video player for original programming, ABC News still has a ways to [...]
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:34 pm
[...] ESPN will re-launch 360 on Saturday with a new look and 26 live events. Rumor on the street is that like the ABC.com player it will be powered by Move Networks, but we’ll have to wait and [...]
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
[...] the interactive agency responsible for the most innovative experiences on the web. Schematic designed the player for ABC and more recently the full episode portal for [...]
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:38 pm
[...] DailyMotion’s decision to offer HD online video delivery is again raising questions about the value of delivering high quality content online. [...]
June 24th, 2008 at 10:31 am
what is the main functionality of your site?
i am not clear