Alphabet Soup: ABC Takes on DVR with Free VOD

In a challenge to DVR ad-skipping practices, ABC is planning on offering its programs via VOD for free. The trick is that the VOD programming will have ads and the fast-forwarding option will be disabled. ABC will sell most of the ads to national advertisers with one slot for local affiliates.

The article notes that in a trial of this VOD service, 20% of users said they would rather use VOD than DVR, which must be programmed. The VOD service will certainly help show sampling because it requires very little commitment, but the beauty of DVR it's easy to use and you can set it and forget it. What the article and the ABC press release didn't say is that people were probably happier to watch the VOD programming because it's free. Ultimately, though, this will only work if all of the networks do the same thing. Then DVR use might be affected.