Cox Communications Ramps up Primetime Programming in ON DEMAND

We've written previously about the double-edged sword that the DVR presents to television operators. They are table-stakes offerings to allow customers to time-shift their programming, but they're having a detrimental effect on how consumers choose to (not) watch advertising. One answer to this conundrum is to move more primetime television programming to the cable operators' on-demand systems, and to make the ads non-skippable. Hey, if it's working for the broadcast networks to offer their content over the Internet, why not in an on-demand world?

On May 20th, Cox Communications announced MyPrimetime to its ON DEMAND Library. Episodes of top ABC and NBC primetime series' will be offered free of charge to Cox Digital Cable customers in the MyPrimetime section of On DEMAND starting the day after they air on the network. In addition, Cox has entered into an agreement with Fox to offer some of its top rated shows in the MyPrimetime category later this summer, beginning with a trial in the company's Orange County operation.

Cool stuff. Look, viewers are already voting on how they want programming delivered to them with the phenomenal success of the sites like ABC.com or Hulu. We don't mind watching a few ads in exchange for the ability to catch up on the latest primetime television programming. Now, if the cable operators can figure out how to build up their on-demand ad inventories and ad insertion tools, they will be in a better position to monetize this content.