ABC.com Rings Up Full-Episode Records In May

Season-Finales Of Top Series Drive More Than 815 Million Minutes Of Viewing

By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 7/14/2008 9:07:00 AM

Viewing on ABC.com’s full-episode player reached new heights in May, pushed in large part the season finales of the network’s top series.

With season-concluders of Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty, among other programming in play, ABC.com’s player delivered a record 815 million minutes of full-length episodes during May, a 53% increase over the previous month and a 110% jump over May 2007 levels.

Data from Move Networks, ABC.com’s Internet TV services provider, also indicated that viewers watched 37 million episodes in May, an increase of over 27% versus April. ABC officials said users are watching multiple episodes per month.

During the 2007-08 TV season, network officials said ABC.com's player featured over 90 national advertisers for the show. That number will grow during the upcoming campaign, they said, as ABC.com will retain the same single-sponsored show format, which also gives the local market affiliate the right to sell one local commerical unit per installment.

This fall, ABC.com will add several new features to the ad-supported player, including: true full-screen viewing, with no browser border; closed captioning for the hearing impaired; content sharing tools enabling users to send and share video links from full episodes with others through email or by embedding links on other Web sites, blogs and social networks; and enhanced navigation and video search capabilities that will allow users to search for series graphically, alphabetically, by genre or popularity.

“Clearly, the demand for ABC’s high quality television programming continues to grow online, particularly among younger viewers,” said Albert Cheng, executive vice president, digital media, Disney-ABC Television Group, in a statement. “Our digital media team is dedicated to bringing new innovations to the ABC.com full episode player, and we expect that these efforts to enhance the online viewing experience combined with ABC Entertainment’s unparalleled content will result in continued viewership growth in the months ahead.”

Since launching in 2006, approximately 400 million episodes have been initiated through the player, according to ABC officials.