DVR Chatter

...well, the beginning of the end anyway.  Or it could be a big flop and shut everyone up about the Internet as a distribution method.

According to Variety, Warner Brothers and AOL will launch In2TV, an ad supported on demand Internet TV "network," in January.  Streaming video.

WB series ranging from the 1970s-era "Chico and the Man" to recent skein "The Fugitive" will be available online with four new 15 second advertisements per half-hour inserted by AOL.

Netco is paying WB a license fee for the series and splitting ad revenue.

If it proves popular, In2TV promises to create a revenue stream for library titles that have largely exhausted their potential in syndication and on DVD.


[...]

Other TV studios will be able to add their content to In2TV, though some may be wary of signing up for a distribution outlet partly owned by Warner Bros. Under the non-exclusive deal, AOL is also able to create separate broadband networks for other content providers and WB can offer its shows to other Netcos.

[...]

Series will cycle on and off of In2TV on a regular basis so only a small portion of the content is available at once. To prevent impacting sales of seasonlong DVDs, WB will offer only 10 episodes of any series at a time.

Shows will be offered as part of six "channels" -- essentially categories to organize content -- at launch, including comedy, sci-fi and cartoons. Two more are expected to follow next year.

In the first year, 4,800 episodes from more than 100 series will cycle through In2TV. But WB has already cleared 14,000 episodes from more than 300 shows to ultimately air.

Besides creating the first large-scale on-demand TV offering on the Net, In2TV will also launch with a broad array of interactive options. AOL is creating a variety of games and quizzes to go along with the shows -- for instance, viewers can bet on who will win an episode of "People's Court" and earn prizes from a sponsor.

If this catches on, any technical folks have an idea of what it may do to Bandwidth?

In case the Variety link gives you trouble, Reuters has more via CNN Money