Disney-ABC Television Group and Verizon are making ABC’s VOD offering available to Verizon FiOS TV customers across the country. FiOS TV customers can watch episodes of popular ABC series like “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Lost,” ”Samantha Who?” and “Ugly Betty” just one day after their broadcast premieres. All the episodes are offered at no charge and in HD. ABC’s new content joins Verizon FiOS TV’s industry-leading VOD library, which offers more than 11,000 titles per month, 70% of which are free.
As with other ABC VOD offerings, Verizon will disable the fast-forward option on the FiOS TV VOD service for all offered ABC content. ABC first made its fast-forward disabled VOD offering available last fall during a trial in California. During that initial trial, research conducted by Knowledge Networks/Statistical Research showed that users of fast-forwarding disabled ABC VOD overwhelmingly (93%) found the advertising acceptable in exchange for gaining free access to their favorite shows. The research also found that the addition of ABC series to their VOD offering grew new usage of the platform and increased frequency of usage by previous users.
