A&E is missing a golden opportunity

I have come to the conclusion that I need to upgrade my ddr ram because I need to watch more television programs online and it seems I’m having issues right now because, well, I tend to download more than one at a time. Totally my fault, of course. I should no better. But I always get one or two queued up while I’m watching another one. It’s a lot quicker that way. And I really like to watch programs online (a hint to all you stations that don’t want to provide your programs for Internet viewing).

I’ve mentioned A&E’s “Obsessed” before and have come to really enjoy it. But I almost always forget when it’s on (I have memory issues, in case you’re wondering). Since it’s not one of my all-time favs, I don’t have it programmed into my television. So, occassionally I’ll go to aetv.com to watch it. Well, they don’t allow you to go back very far to see episodes you’ve missed. If you’ve missed on from three weeks ago, well, too bad for you. They don’t keep them online. Which is a big mistake, in my opinion.

Now, I know that they want the ad revenue and want me to watch the full episodes on television. I get that. But I don’t want to have to wait for the reruns of shows I’ve missed. I can go online to just about any other network and see shows I’ve missed and I’ll sit through their ads to do so. I like being able to go back and see previous episodes that I’ve already seen, too. Other networks have seen an advantage to making their shows available via their websites and I think A&E is behind the curve by not doing the same. That’s a shame, too, because I would certainly spend time on their site watching their shows and watching the ads (which I hate, but appreciate the need for).

At any rate, the point is that millions of people spend time online watching their favorite programs. It’s an awesome way to pass the time, especially when your children are busy watching “Spongebob” on the family television. My husband can even watch the race online and I don’t have to sit through it with him. Networks that don’t provide the content online are really missing out on the pageviews and online advertising revenue. Don’t fall for the song and dance that you’ll lose money by providing it there. Shoot, USA Networks has even produced a web-only series called “Little Monk” because they recognize the potential. Now, some newspapers are limiting the content of their websites (my hometown paper, for example) so that people will buy the paper for the full story. This is a bad idea and I hope that networks aren’t falling for the hype. It’s not necessarily a good thing when you’re the last to do anything on the web.

Hopefully, A&E will change their policy and upload past episodes of “Obsessed” (and in the future, “Hoarders”). I’d like to be able to meander through the site and see more shows as I seem to miss the good ones. I really like the content A&E provides (with the exception of “Dog the Bounty Hunter” because it’s idiotic, in my opinion), but don’t want to have to wade through some of their less-than-stellar productions that have marathons dedicated to them seemingly every weekend to get to the good stuff (see the reference to “Dog”).

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