Sesame Street on Hulu, iTunes and YouTube

Favorite chidlrne's program Sesame Street is taking to the Internet, with episodes hitting iTunes and segments on YouTube and Hulu. Digital Trends reports.

Complete episodes of Sesame Street will be available on Itunes for $1.99 each (with 70 percent of the revenue going to Sesame Workshop), and with online video sides YouTube and Hulu also setting up Sesame Street sections featuring clips and segments.

TV-Video.net - Watch TV Shows Online

TV-Video another good web portal where you can watch episodes from favorite TV shows.

In their own words:

“TV-video.net is an online cost-free video service site for all fans around the world who are interested in TV shows.”

Gizmodo's Quick Links to Free Streaming Shows

Gizmodo's Internet TV remote has the best links to every prime-time show currently streaming online at full length.

Bookmark it and check back often, we'll update it as new shows come out... *Note: Many of these streams will not work outside of the US, but if you're out of the country and need your fix, you know where to go without any help from us.

I was able to watch full (official) episode of Dexter from Switzerland

Great news! I was able to watch full length episodes of both "Dexter" and "Californication" on YouTube from Switzerland, following CBS and Showtime's announcement on Friday to offer full length television shows on Google's video sharing site.

Up until now, episodes available for viewing on a network Website or on Hulu.com were not available to viewers outside of the US, but for some (good) reason, I was able to watch them on YouTube, including commercials. Hopefully this is not an oversight that will be corrected!

There have always been pirated full length episodes on video sharing sites, but these videos I'm pretty sure, are the official ones.

See below screen captures of Showtime's endorsed "Dexter" episode as well as a capture of the “theater view” option.

Time Warner Cable shows customers how to get TV for free

Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt has been an outspoken critic of the networks' online efforts, arguing that free, ad-supported TV sites such as Hulu undermine the subscription-TV revenues that the industry depends on. LA Times Blog reports.

Recently, however, Time Warner Cable has been urging its customers to use those very sites -- and to watch them on their TV sets, no less. Among other things, the company is offering a quick video tutorial on how to connect a PC or laptop to a TV set.

And if customers can't figure out how to make the connections on their own, Time Warner employees will provide the necessary cables and help with the installation.

... What's behind the latest move? A dispute between the LIN TV group and Time Warner over "retransmission consent," or the fees cable operators pay for the right to carry local stations' broadcasts."

Television on the Internet taking off for real

It's been a long time coming but television on the Internet appears finally to be taking off, opening up a new viewing experience for free and helping to fight online piracy. The Associated Press reports.

One of the newest services, Hulu which was launched a month ago in the United States, is backed by media giant NBC Universal and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

The online video-on-demand (VOD) service "will let you watch your favourite programmes anytime for free", Hulu's youthful CEO Jason Kilar told a conference at the giant MIPTV audiovisual entertainment industry trade show this week.

Kilar said the plan was to make Hulu available outside the US. But this will take time as the company would need to negotiate content rights issues for each country.

... Setting aside their rivalries, the networks plan to hit back at the growing challenge posed by hugely successful Internet video-sharing sites such as YouTube, where their programmes are regularly illegally downloaded.

Both Joost and Babelgum were launched last year but industry experts are starting to question what sort of results they and other fledgling web TV services are notching up.

These services have been criticised for not offering enough content and for incomplete TV series, and recently some have started to change track.

Joost is now concentrating on partnering with major studio and TV networks. Babelgum is focusing on independent films, sport, nature and travel, and Vuze is specialising in the sci-fi and animation genres popular with young males.

Tudors viewed as many times online as on TV

For the second year in a row, the season premiere of “The Tudors” was viewed as many times online as it was on television, according to data shared by Shwotime on Tuesday, reports TV Decoder.

"The network estimates that the most recent episode of “The Tudors” was viewed about one million times online, thanks in part to a concerted effort to get people to watch it at no charge.

Showtime spread the episode across the Internet, posting it on YouTube (where it received over 300,000 views) as well as sites like Comcast.com, Yahoo and Sho.com. A similar strategy last year led to about one million views online and on-demand, Showtime has estimated."

Hulu: The Next Step in TV on the Web

Time magazine gives Hulu - out of beta testing and officially launched - a thumbs up review.

"Hulu could do to television what iTunes did to music. That's because Hulu frees TV shows from their networks and instead lets (US viewers) watch legal versions of programs à la carte, whenever they choose — for free on the Web.

Though TV shows have gradually become available on individual network sites over the past few years, the merit of Hulu is that it lets you go to a single, easy-to-use site to watch any episode you want — without having to sift through all the promotional clutter on official TV sites.

The best part, you don't even have to know which network a show airs on. "People don't associate The Biggest Loser with NBC. People identify with shows, not a network," says Hulu's CEO, Jason Kilar.

ITV signs Bebo video deal

ITV is to make its TV shows available viaBebo in a deal that aims to tap into the young internet generation increasingly attracted to social networking websites.

The first ITV show to be made available on Bebo will be US acquisition "Gossip Girl", which airs on ITV2, which started Monday at www.bebo.com/gossipgirl. Not available though to Swiss viewers: "The video you are trying to watch cannot be viewed from your current location or country".

[via The Guardian]

Video streaming in China is getting state of the art

Analysts say there are hundreds of video-sharing Web sites in China today, reports Investors Business Daily.

The most popular, like Tudou, can attract 100 million viewers a day. The programs range from full-length TV programs to home-made amateur video clips.

Streaming videos on the Net are one of China's hottest new businesses and officials hesitated to crack down for fear of hurting the economy.

Video streaming in China is getting state of the art.

On Feb. 25, for instance, content distributor ChinaCache said it was introducing flash video streaming services in partnership with Adobe China, a unit of U.S. software maker Adobe Systems.

China's eight top video-sharing firms have received about $190 million from private investors since 2005, according to consulting firm BDA China."

Tudou Ordered to Shut Down?

NewTeeVee reports that China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has ordered leading Chinese video-sharing site Tudou.com to shut down, according to reports from Netease.

The shutdown is reportedly over government concern that Tudou is hosting pornographic and other banned content.

For those who watch US TV series online, Tudou is one of the most prolific sources. It would be devastating for Europeans and Asians if it was shut down. This morning it's still working. According to some sources, the shutdown story is a vicious rumor started by a competitor website.

According to DANWEI's correspondent this is just a shake down for penalty fees, and a shot across the bows of all the video sites to warn them that big brother SARFT is watching.

The accusations of pornographic content are absurd: Tudou is one of the least salacious video hosts out there. Lots of the smaller ones seem to be trying to compete by pushing the boundaries of what's permitted, but Tudou and the other big ones don't have the same sexy, sexy movies. Copyright infringement's a different story, but there again, Tudou is no worse than any of the others.

Final Episode of Dexter Online ahead of Network schedule

The final episode of Dexter has been online for nearly a week. I only realized yesterday that it was posted ahead of the network schedule.

This is the first time a Dexter episode has been aired on YouTube before Showtime TV.

Who leaked it?

Fox: Our Viewers Will Want To Watch TV Online - Someday

Forbes interviews Fox Digital Media President Dan Fawcett on the future of watching full length shows online. He believes in it.

"Fawcett is convinced that viewers will want to watch full episodes of tv shows on their computers. He also thinks hey'll stream them more than they'll download them, and that they'll watch them with ads.

How important do you think repurposed full-length programming is going to be for you online?

I think it's going to be very important. Certainly short-form has played very well on the broadband platform but I think as part of our NBC venture, we're going to have a lot of long-form programming available. We think people will watch that when, where and how they want to, whether it's in the privacy of their bedroom or in their office or on their PC, wherever they may be.

[via Silicon Alley Insider]

Dexter

Showtime’s “Dexter” returned with a vengeance Sunday, becoming the cabler’s first series to score more than 1 million viewers on TV, according to Variety.

Hopefully the networks will be publishing their online viewer numbers soon as well. How many viewers (mostly Europeans and Asians) watch from rogue video sharing sites will probably remain a mystery though.

The TV Addict offers viewers season premier of "Dexter"

One-upping networks who are streaming their TV series online with a 24 hour delay afer their broadcast, websites are now streaming pilots and premiers, before their TV launches.

Following Yahoo's announcement today of their offering “Aliens in America” and “Life is Wild” online before their CW Premieres, The TV Addict is offering up what they are calling "a daily dose of Dexter" before this Sunday's season launch on Showtime.

And "today’s dose is the season premiere. Simply click here and enter the password “Killer Shows” to watch."

(Sigh). Not for me though, locked out again from Switzerland: "SORRY; Full episodes of Showtime programming on SHO.com are not available from your location" - is the message I get.

Why, as a stay-at-home Mom and blogger, the story of a forensic expert, specialized in blood splatter and serial killer on the side is one my favorite shows, is another matter all together.

Ad-supported streaming is absolutely the future

US television networks believe they have found the business model needed to profit in the digital age – streaming their hit shows over the internet for free, with embedded ads, as opposed to selling them to consumers as digital downloads - which is bad news for Joost, Babelgum, iTunes and other pay-for-downloading services. The FT reports via CrunchGear.

"Many TV executives are confident that putting programmes online will build greater awareness among consumers and increase audiences. The networks have also been encouraged by advertisers, who are rapidly shifting their budgets to the internet to reach young consumers.

According to Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive: “Ad-supported streaming is absolutely the future".

The networks are hoping that streaming online for free will increase consumption by allowing viewers to catch episodes they might have missed, and lessen the demand for pirated versions of products. "

But streaming from the the Networks sites doesn't work for European viewers, as a computer's ISP number is identified as being based geographically outside the US. A message appears with "Sorry, for US viewers only".

So watching TV on video sharing websites is immensely popular, offering the latest episodes in streaming for free. Non US residents can keep up with the US by watching the season premiers or pilots of "Gossip Girl", "Pushing Daisies", "Bionic Woman", "Chuck", "Private Practice", and the newest season of "Prison Break", "Weeds", "Heroes"... a day or two after their broadcast in the US.

TV fans don't want to wait for their European channels to distribute their favorite series - a year after the US. They want to watch them as soon as they are released. Maybe Europeans/Asians would be willing to pay-per-view, if such an offering was available, instead of watching pirated free versions.

French network TFI will be launching today, September 25, on TF1Vision, the latest episodes of Heroes, 24 hours after it's US broadcast, in a trial pay per view video on demand offering, in streaming and will cost euro 1.99 or $2.80.

It will be interesting to see if it's successful.

SideReel.com links to TV series online

For all viewers of TV series online, a most precious link and review from NewTeeVee.

"Watching your favorite TV shows online isn’t as easy as we’d like to believe. TV content is scattered across various sites and in different, competing formats. Video search doesn’t yield relevant results consistently. ...

So what’s a viewer to do? Check out SideReel, a wiki-style video search site that wants to be the conduit to your favorite TV shows and other content. (personal note, it's the best I've seen so far. Bookmark!).

SideReel isn’t alone in this space, keep on eye on competitor Locate TV (now in private beta). "

Fox Streaming K-Ville, Prison Break

Fox will be streaming the pilot of of their new show (to US viewers only) K-Ville, and offer “first look” at season three of Prison Break, featuring the first 17 minutes of the season premiere.

"It is critical that we embrace the Internet as a distributed medium that promotes engagement with users, wherever they are on the Web,” said William Bradford, senior vice president of content strategy for Fox. “This approach reinforces the importance of involving fans to assist with marketing the show through word of mouth and discussion forums across the Internet.”

[Broadcasting&Cable]

How To Watch Your Favorite Tv Shows Online For Free

Emma Martin for The American Chronicle explains how to watch your favorite TVshows online.

"All of the major broadcast networks now provide a great selection of some of your favorite tv shows for you to watch online and most of them are available to be streamed the morning after its network broadcast.

For US Viewers Only

The US Broadcast Networks who do air their tv series online have restricted access to their streaming tv shows to US viewers due to syndication and distribution agreements. So even if you are as close as Canada, you are out of luck.

A better option for international viewers is Fast TV Downloads.

They accept buyers from anywhere (including the US) and unlimited access costs a one time fee of $34.95 for unlimited downloads and burning. So if you prefer to download shows onto your hard drive or want to burn them to watch on your DVD player, this is the best way to go.

Emma Martin provides a complete rundown of what each network has to offer, as well as satellite and downloading alternatives, at Ny Watch TV Shows Online page, so be sure to bookmark it for all the latest news from the networks.