RSSWB network returns as Web site
By Tim Conneally | Published August 28, 2008, 4:21 PM
Deceased television network The WB has been resurrected, at least on line, emerging from beta as an ad-supported streaming TV show repository.
Launched in beta last May, The WB.com features full episodes of programs such as Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville, Everwood, Friends, and The O.C.
Episodes of classic Warner Bros. shows will be updated every Monday, and a good deal of content has been made immediately available. Twenty-one episodes of the Babylon 5 season 1 have been posted in their entirety, and 22 episodes of Mad TV series 12 are available.
In addition to "back episodes" of established shows, The WB.com features Web exclusive short-form episodic content like "Whatever Hollywood," and "A Boy Wearing Makeup," in keeping with the motif and style of programming that used to appear on The WB TV prior to its amalgamation with UPN in the fall of 2006 to form The CW.
The site also features WB-related games and downloadable gimmicks (wallpapers, buddy icons, etc.), and the Adobe Premiere Express-powered WBlender, which lets users remix and generally mutilate Warner Bros. TV content.
Certainly the most unique part about The WB.com are the soon-to-be-available full-length Web-based shows such as Sorority Forever, which bears a strong resemblance to a high-budget commercial, featuring none other than YouTube star Jessica Rose, a.k.a. "Lonelygirl 15."
This will be cool once they start streaming to TiVo. The current Amazon / TiVo business model isn't very good: $1.99 per episode to "buy" a 15-year-old show (that I'm only going to watch once for nostalgic reasons). I prefer the WB / TiVo model much better: free shows with added commercials. More networks should offer their shows as commercial-sponsored downloads to DVRs.
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Bah...
We need one that's network-agnostic.
Buffy, Angel, Babylon, Battlestar, Dr. Who, Eureka, Reaper, Pushing Daisies, Big Bang Theory, NCIS....
Still easier just to buy the DVDs.
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Why? just goto in2tv.com this has all these episodes and more for the past 5 years if not longer.
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Wonder how this will turn out for Comcast customers with that new CAP LIMIT.
They make all this great stuff available for watching online and then limit how much you can watch and listen to?
Bummer
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Its only available in America....
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I hate it when they do that.
We should be able to share everything about different entertainment.
I mean, Buffy with Japanese subtitles could be kinda fun. :)
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BBC did the same with Dr. Who for what its worth.
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On my todo list (right after make a todo list):
Plan to find out if a proxy server in BBC land
would fool 'em.
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Except the fact that it would cost the TV networks too much to acquire the rights
for streaming or downloading rights for shows internationally. If they actually did
this, the shows themselves would end up with much lower production budgets,
resulting in lower production quality and/or quantity of episode per season.
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