It’s now official: the AOL & Warner Bros Cable broadband TV project, In2TV, is ready to go.
Press release:
America Online and Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution are set to debut Wednesday their broadband TV network, In2TV. In2TV will offer nearly 14,000 shows from 400 classic TV series in an ad-supported, online service.
Thousands of episodes from some of the most popular television series of
all time will make a comeback exclusively on AOL.com in early 2006, thanks to a pioneering collaboration between AOL and Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution to form a new broadband network. The network– called In2TV – will allow consumers to stream full-length episodes from favorite series such as Welcome Back Kotter, Sisters, Beetlejuice, Lois & Clark, La Femme Nikita and Growing Pains free and on-demand on the Web. Along with full-length episodes, In2TV will also include unique interactive features such as games, quizzes, polls, trivia contests and more.
Heroes and Horrors TV: Sci-fi and horror fans will be riveted by this
channel that includes Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,
which was a Top 10 program on ABC for three seasons, starring Dean Cain and Golden Globe-winner Teri Hatcher of Desperate Housewives, along with every episode of Babylon 5, the Emmy Award-winning syndicated science fiction series so popular that stations aired it twice a day. Plus, there’s Freddy’s Nightmares hosted by the maniacal Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), the star of the hit film series “Nightmare on Elm Street,� and the adventures of Wonder Woman starring Lynda Carter, which was consistently a Top 20 series across two networks, airing on both ABC and then on CBS. Plus V, where resistance fighters must stop “Visitors� from invading Earth.
This first-of-its-kind interactive video experience demonstrates the
impact of broadband—now in 53% of U.S. households*–on the television
industry, as broadband provides a new platform for television assets on
the Internet.
This treasure trove of television programming will serve as a
cornerstone of the AOL.com website’s commitment to delivering broadband video through AOL Video on Demand and AOL Video Search and
http://www.aolsearch.com/ as well as through AOL Television, the number one television destination online**. AOL’s Video Search engine is one of the industry’s most comprehensive video search tools, drawing from the industry-leading AOL Video on Demand archive of more than 18,000 licensed and originally produced assets and over 1.5 million video assets on the Internet indexed through AOL’s Singingfish.
“With In2TV, we are enabling Web users to experience and interact with
television programming in an entirely new way, and creating a new
distribution platform for TV content,” said Kevin Conroy, Executive Vice
President, AOL Media Networks. “This is an exciting new way to
experience these shows, allowing Web users to enjoy what they want, when they want it. We view this collaboration as truly transformational and yet another demonstration of our commitment to making our
next-generation AOL.com portal the best destination for video on the Web.�
As a interesting note I believe the AOL videos have the orignal pilot not the remake
Only works in the US
Also doesn’t work on a Macintosh. Only works on Windows XP with Media Player 10 (for now, I’m told)
Okay, not to be Pollyanna here, but at least AOL and Warners is pushing B5 out to a new generation of viewer, and that can only be a good thing.
Does suck that it’s not Mac friendly off the bat, though.
Just a couple bits of (hopefully) “constructive criticism” after listening to this episode.
I do hope you’re not regularly going to avoid discussing plot points and arc issues for fear of “spoiling” a show that’s over a decade old! You guys danced around the Soul Hunter’s dialog about Delenn’s status as a member of the Grey Council, and I hope that sort of thing isn’t going to happen often.
The other is (with tremendous gratitude to Jeffrey for getting these guests on to talk with you in the first place), please ditch the “Mystery Guest” thing. I really think that the interviews would be much more interesting if you *knew* who you were going to be talking with, and could prepare specific questions with that person in mind, instead of trying to do everything on the fly. We’d be much more likely to hear the sort of personal stories and details we (I?) are/am *really* interested in, rather than generic talk about how wonderful it was to work with everyone.
Don’t want to come off as a complete Grinch here, downloading the ‘cast every week and always looking forward to the next (Pat Tallman’s interview and Stephen Furst’s casting story are the high points for me so far). Appreciate what you guys are doing, keep it up. I’m re-watching my DVDs at roughly the same pace as your episode discussions, just so I can nod my head along with you in the car as you talk about things. :-7
Ack - clicked the wrong link! My previous comments are actually in reference to the *last* episode, with the Boxleitner interview (and thanks for putting the AOL broadband stuff into a special episode, apart from the regular B5 focused guests/talk).
At least five 15 second commericals 9 minutes and 25 seconds into Soul Hunter, and plenty more afterwards. But hey, it’s an ep I can catch at work while eating lunch. So it’s all good.
Hey Hendel –
I’m sure that Summer is a sharp enough producer that she has already prepared a set of questions to ask (a) which can be asked of anyone who worked on B5, or (b) is tailored for *each* member of the cast in advance, so that when they discover who they’re talking to, they are ready to go.
At least, that’s how I would do things…
By the way, I would never have recognized the In2TV version of “The Gathering” as the *original* version if not for the podcast! I might never have bothered to watch it otherwise!
Ok, I checked out the In2TV thing. The website was pretty hard on this old computer with it’s flash and what-have-you.
Having gotten past that, I poked the Bab5 pilot and started to watch. Not bad in the window, and kind of chunky in full screen. But hey, it’s free so things are good.
That was yesterday….
I poked the Hi-Q link tonight, and got a big ’sign-up’ thing that made me read through a bunch on AUP and contract rubbish. Being AOL I read it through pretty closely and found nothing amiss - ie. I wasn’t selling my soul or anything.
Holy crap!
It lets you play the episode, while still downloading (albeit close to an hour for close to 480 megs) on my Comcast connection, but this puppy is DVD quality! For free!
Maybe you guys explained this all during the episode - I haven’t had a chance to catch up on this episode of KAMN yet, but wow.
I would have never found this without checking this site, and for that I owe you guys a big, big favor.
Thanks! And keep it up.
Oh, and yeah, Pinky and the Brain’s getting serious downloading shortly.
Rats, US only
But Brisco County Jr!!!
Hey Gang!
Now what would be really cool is if we get the heads up on what episode was being talked about a week ahead of time, so that those of us who are catching up on the best freekin show in the universe can watch it via In2TV and join in on the fun around here~!
Great show Summer, Tim, and Jeffery! Keep it up!
Will, we’re pretty much talking episodes in order. Check with the Lurker’s Guide for the order, if In2TV doesn’t list them properly.