While TV shows are becoming more prevalnet, and more readily available on the Web, with services such as Hulu and the BBC iPlayer leading the way, films generally have been hit and miss.
While television companies have been slow to embrace the Web as a way of distributing content, the movie studios have been moving at snail’s pace.
Disney Leading The Way
Disney however is now proving its commitment to the Web, and video being available over the Internet by making some of its most popular movies available online for free straight after airing on traditional TV through ABC.
The movies, of which there is a full list, with airing dates below, are not new, but they are some of the biggest Disney films from the last few years, and will be available in full for 5 days each.
List Of Movies
- Finding Nemo – currently available online through June 13
- Monsters Inc. – airs on ABC Saturday, June 14 at 8pm; available on Disney.com June 16-20
- Haunted Mansion – airs on ABC Saturday, June 28 at 8pm; available on Disney.com June 30-July 4
- Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen – airs on ABC Saturday, July 5 at 8pm; available on Disney.com July 7-11
- Princess Diaries 2 – airs on ABC Saturday, July 12 at 8pm; available on Disney.com July 14-18
- Freaky Friday – airs on ABC Saturday, July 19 at 8pm; available on Disney.com July 21-25
- Peter Pan – airs on ABC Saturday, Aug. 2 at 8pm; available on Disney.com Aug. 4-8
Paul Yanover, executive vice president and managing director, Disney Online said:
“Streaming full-length films on Disney.com takes our commitment to delivering world-class online entertainment to the next level,”
“This is a wonderful partnership with ABC, and just another example of how Disney’s unmatched, high-quality content can be leveraged on multiple platforms.”
Conclusions
I applaud Disney for this move, because it is leading the way, showing that a company is willing to experiment with putting movies on the Web, and not charging for them. Hopefully that will lead to other doing the same.
However, there is one problem which rears its ugly head yet again: the fact that these movies are only available to US residents, with the rest of the world locked out.
In the same way that Hulu will not fully succeed until it embraces more than just North America, nor will experiments such as this. But apart from that, and assuming you live in the states, have fun with these family films.
