“AOL said it plans to launch on Wednesday one of the biggest free video services on the Internet, serving up vintage shows and short clips backed by online advertisements. The service, called In2TV, will launch with four advertisers — Intel Corp., Kia Motors Corp., Kraft Foods Inc., and Hershey Co.,” Kenneth Li reports for Reuters. “In2TV will feature thousands of shows from corporate sibling Warner Bros., which owns the rights to shows that include ‘Welcome Back Kotter,’ ‘Kung Fu’ and ‘Growing Pains.’ AOL, the online division of Time Warner Inc., is gearing up to take on Microsoft Corp., Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Apple Computer Inc., which have their own designs on digital entertainment.”
“By the end of the second quarter, AOL plans to expand its video service to include paid downloads. It also plans a subscription service sometime in 2007, the company has said. Downloads are expected to cost about $1.99 per episode,” Li reports. “Some videos will be available using a system it calls Hi-Q video format, which presents shows in DVD-quality. Users would be required to download free software to enable computers to store the videos on their hard drive.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, woe, how will Apple’s iTunes Store ever compete by offering “Lost,” “The Office,” and “The Daily Show” against the likes of AOL’s “Welcome Back Kotter,” “Kung Fu” and “Growing Pains?” Seems an impossible fight; Apple should just shut down iTunes TV shows section and give up. Seriously, though, competition is good and if AOL really can serve up higher DVD-quality video someday, one would think that Apple would respond with quality boosts in iTunes video and music, too.
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Related article:
AOL to launch ‘In2TV’ ad-supported online service featuring ‘vintage’ TV shows – November 14, 2005
