Audio Video News

Wow. That's a lot of letters. Lemme sort that out for you. Verizon's FiOS TV is offering ABC video-on-demand, in high-definition. But, (and you knew there would have to be a "but") there's a catch.

Intentionally, ABC is disabling the fast-forward feature. No way to skip the ads. No way to skip boring scenes either. But that's not the important part. In an attempt keep ad-revenue flowing, you can demand a show, but ABC demands that you watch their ads. The shows are available the day after their broadcast premiere, are free, and in HD.

Keep reading for to see what their execs had to say.

"We are excited to team with Verizon to expand our VOD offering to their FiOS TV customers," said David Preschlack, executive vice president, Disney and ESPN Networks affiliate sales and marketing. "This is yet another example of our dedication to exploring innovative models that enable us to both make our most popular content available to viewers on a variety of platforms and add value to our distribution and advertising partners."

Terry Denson, vice president FiOS TV content and programming, said, "The addition of ABC's video-on-demand content is another way for Verizon to offer our FiOS TV customers the ultimate entertainment experience.  And the new HD programming from ABC helps bring us even closer to our promise to offer FiOS TV customers access to more than 1,000 HD video-on-demand titles every month by year-end.  Bottom line: FiOS TV is the only service to consider for customers who want the best HD experience."

Of course, you could always just DVR the shows when they air the first time and skip-to-the-lou through all the ads your little heart desires. Except the new Nano ad. I like that one. —Leslie Shapiro

Verizon