In a welcome development from the earlier story about Fox’s online ambitions, ABC News plans to bow a daily political webcast, ‘Top Line,’ on Monday, according to Broadcasting and Cable. The 15-minute summary will be available every weekday on ABCNews.com, hosted by reporter, Rick Klein, and the Network’s political director, David Chalian. The show is intended to cover each day’s political events and include interviews with relevant people, plus interaction from the site’s viewers.
In even better news, ABC are also reported to be choosing shows for release on NBC’s ‘Hulu’ site. The Disney folk have been cagey about offering full shows online before, but the apparent motive is to present a unified challenge to Hulu’s nascent but fast-growing rival, TV.com, owned by CBS.
To me, this is wonderful news. ABC’s real motive, of course, is to cut out the middle-man and maximize their revenues from an audience base that’s been shredded by TiVo and other time-shifting tools. If their new collaboration bears fruit – and it should – countless more channels should follow their lead, the internet’s media range will explode and the cable and satellite providers are doomed.
