ABC tooks a stab at a flash video player that injects ads and sponsorship into free content online.

Today my tests revealed that the player could use some help.  Also the player is playing long (30sec.) ads instead of 15-second IAB standard ads.   Perhaps they have not seen the behavioral data that shows what users want.

The ads were NOT annoying… there were only three “interstitial-like” video ads that came up. In my tests (in Mozilla / MacBook) the player crashed on me on four occasions and I did find way to roll past the ads.

ABC really needs to roll this out as a BETA and allow the expert online video community to give them some feedback.

I can identify three ways to improve the player so that it integrates the ads into the content without stitching it together and asking the user to perform tasks all while recording the users behavior for future learning’s.

Why is this relevant???
ABC HAS INKED $3.6 MILLION worth of deals with 36 advertisers for its new abc.com streaming video that promotes its prime-time lineup. Media buying and selling executives equate the figure as about double the CPM viewer prices of traditional TV.

ABC released the names of 21 advertisers that have bought into abc.com's streaming video efforts, which started Sept. 22 and run through year's-end. Those advertisers include Visa, Honda, Johnson & Johnson, Red Lobster, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Sears, Remax, Nissan, Masterfoods USA, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Toyota Motor Sales, Royal Caribbean, Subway, Verizon Wireless, Verizon Online, Sprint, Walt Disney, Century 21 and JP Morgan Chase.

A couple of weeks ago, Disney-ABC Television reached an agreement with ABC affiliates. Armed with a new ABC video player, stations could sell and insert local video Internet advertising. ABC will run three 30-second spots in each hour show, and two 30-second spots in a half-hour show.