Mashable’s Stan Schroeder isn’t too thrilled about IMDB now offering free full-length movies and TV shows. For me, it’s yet another rockin’ step towards web and TV convergence. Although the videos have already been made available on sites like Hulu -- IMDB acts as a contextual aggregator.
I’ve used IMDB for years as a research and reference resource. Not only can I read and view everything I’ve ever wanted to know about a show like Heroes, now I can watch episodes of it while I’m in the context of researching the show.
And this is a win-win for Hulu (in this case) since their branded content is further distributed along with their pre-roll advertisements. So IMDB is happy because they have more great content. Hulu is happy because they’re getting more exposure. Advertisers are happy since they’re achieving better reach – and in the end users of IMDB are psyched because it puts rich content in context at their fingertips.
While I still have issues with viewing full-length films/TV shows in front of my computer and the fact that the videos aren’t portable to my iPod or at least downloadble so I can watch when I’m offline (like on a plane), the tipping scale is imminent.
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