CYBERSPACE – If you missed it on television, chances are increasingly good that you can catch it on the internet. That’s certainly the angle being played out by search engine giant Yahoo via its recent acquisition of two episodes each of the CBS comedies “How I Met Your Mother” and “Two and a Half Men” for viewing offline, including with the help of the popular portable video iPod.Viewable through next Monday, the 30-minute comedies will stream sans commercials on Yahoo’s website. This is the first time that Yahoo has presented previously televised programming in its entirety.
Those wondering whether to fire up the old iPod and capture the new Yahoo/CBS offerings will want to know that the “Two and a Half Men” episodes available are the rather suggestively titled “We Call It Mr. Pinky” and “Madame and Her Special Friend.” The episodes available from “How I Met Your Mother” have the more benign titles of “The Pineapple Incident” and “The Sweet Taste of Liberty.”
The sit-coms join other television content now available for iPod download at a minimal cost, including ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost.” NBC is taking a somewhat different track by offering same-night replays of its “Nightly News” free of charge. The revolutionary recording abilities of TiVo are also set to increase, with the company announcing that during 2006 any program recorded on its Series2 digital video recorders will be capable of iPod transfer. AOL also has plans to make 30 classic television series available for online viewing.
iTunes, not wanting to lose out to the less experienced but well-finances mobile download options has expended its video content and has been charging two dollars per episode. With Yahoo appearing on the scene and CBS announcing its intention to offer its titles through iTunes, the download veteran has decided to offer free videos in order to entice mobile video hounds to the online video store.
