All you happy science fiction fans can just about fall over (why not we almost did) because CBS, yes, CBS is offering classic television to be watched as a video stream on their site for free. Did we say free, we did not believe it either and had to go look. After all this is a mass media entertainment empire and as entertainment empires go, the whole sorted here history has not been very good lately.
Did we say not good? The reason pirates win is because they have stuff we want to watch, and most of us will go and watch TV when or where we want, including pirate content.
Ok so there is a commercial involved here on start up, and while you cannot embed the videos, you have to go to CBS to watch them, you can share the file by sending the link to someone via e-mail. You can also get the twilight zone, Hawaii Five-0, McGyver and other shows as well.
What is interesting is that the commercials follow the same formatting as on TV, meaning at the right breaks, you get one ad (at least it is not the disaster of ads that TV is). We would sit through that, one ad every 10 minutes or so, that seems like a very fair trade off in the longer run.
We still will not click on an ad; TV ads do not work except for the very young, the very stupid or the very gullible. Someone should have figured this one out by now, but then you have to give them the attempt at trying to sell me stuff just in case. We do that anyways with ads on our blogs, and YouTube advertising.
Is this the big break we have been waiting for? On demand streaming of stuff that people who are well, semi normal, will actually watch? It looks like it, and it looks good.
Of all the things that have happened, getting star trek streamed to my PC is the best thing that can happen.
Out of the carnage that RIAA, MPAA, and IFPI have created, we really need to stop for a moment, realize the money value to CBS, and literally thank them for this one. Or you can yell “ITS ABOUT F*NG TIME!” that is entirely up to you.
Smart move folks. You can catch star trek here. Now excuse me, I have to go watch the doomsday machine for about the 20 billionth time now. Thanks!
If your really into streaming tv episodes, you might find this site to be simply mind blowing- am currently watching Star Trek streams on my iPhone or desktop with unlimited access to more than 200 TV series - complete seasons (yup every episode!) using a site called http://3click.tv so far as long as my wifi signal is strong I have 25000 episodes in my pocket
eat that iTunes Netflix and Hulu!