And broadcast and broadband edge ever closer:
Yahoo Inc. is streaming this week CBS comedies “Two And A Half Men” and “How I Met Your Mother,” the latest example of the merger of TV and the Internet.
Yahoo on Monday started offering two episodes from each show. The shows will be available for a week, and mark the first time the Web portal has streamed a CBS show in its entirety.
Both shows, which air on TV Monday nights, are being streamed without commercials. “How I Met Your Mother” stars Josh Radnor, Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders, Jason Segal and Neil Patrick Harris. “Two And A Half Men” stars Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones.
The Yahoo move follows the movement of TV shows to the Web. America Online Inc., a unit of Time Warner Inc., plans to launch early next year an online TV network that will stream classic TV shows, such as “Welcome Back Kotter,” “Growing Pains,” and “Chico And The Man.” The showings are the result of a partnership with Warner Bros.
I can’t even imagine what things are going to be like ten years from now.
Nikki
Google actually did this first with the 1st episode of “Everybody hates Chris.”
Zifnab
If you want to get really dated, the first episode of “South Park” was originally just animation two guys made up in their basement with construction paper that got posted on the Comedy Central web page.
Ah “Santa vs. Jesus”. Classic.
Pb
Without commercials? WTF? Oh, this is such a trial balloon. Dear networks, now all you have to do is start airing *quality programming*…
HH
How I Met Your Mother is quite good, thanks mostly to Alyson Hannigan, Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel.
Nikki
Actually, that’s not how it happened. The two were hired to make a video Xmas card for a Hollywood producer. They came up with “The Spirit of Christmas” (which I still have on my computer). It got circulated around, ended up on the Internet, got fans from the Gen X crowd. Comedy Central then hired them to create “South Park.”
jason
well said, finally a good report on this stuff