ABC is the only television network so far to offer an application for watching its shows free—with ads—on Apple Inc.’s new iPad tablet computer, and it says its business model is proving fruitful.
The network said that in the 10 days since the iPad’s debut, its TV-show watching app has been downloaded 205,000 times, giving the Walt Disney Co. unit a presence on nearly half the 450,000 devices that Apple says it has sold. Moreover, users have watched at least part of 650,000 television episodes using the app, generating “several million” ad impressions, according to an ABC spokesman, although the precise number is still being calculated.
Disney-ABC television President Anne Sweeney says the network is pleased with the initial results.
Advertisers on the iPad so far include Clorox, Lexus, AT&T, Heineken, Sears and Target. For now, Disney is delivering the same kind of 30-second spots seen on television. Starting in the fall, it expects to sell the kind of interactive ads featured on its Web player. Also, ABC eventually expects to give local affiliates the ability to sell ads that would be seen only by iPad users in their markets, a capability that already exists on its Web-based player.
Read more: The Wall Street Journal Blogs
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