May 10th, 2006
Warner Bros Partners with 180Solutions
By Jimmy Daniels
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
In one of those moves you just have to shake your head at, Warner Bros has partnered with 180Solutions to distribute shows made exclusively for the web. The plan is to add a third show, and to use other models to distribute the shows, such as on Sprint telephones and BitTorrent.
So far, 180solutions has made three episodes of “Deception” available on Zango.com, as well as on about 50 sites within its publisher network, Baur said. Each episode of “Deception,” starring “Days of Our Lives” veteran Roark Critchlow and produced by his production company, lasts between three and five minutes. The series is aimed at women between the ages 35 and 54, and will contain 30 episodes total, with new episodes appearing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. “Medical Island,” aimed at males 18 to 24, will consist of 10 episodes total. 180solutions will have exclusive Web rights to distribute the shows for 120 days.
Warner Bros. and 180solutions have been quietly working together for almost a year, mainly in the gaming space, but the relationship had been kept under wraps. Source: Mediapost via Todd Crawford
They have also signed a deal with BitTorrent to distribute the shows, pricing for the service has also not been announced but sources reveal that television shows might cost as little as $1 while films might cost around the same amount as DVDs.
We Say: Apparently, they have been working with 180Soultions for about a year, mainly in the gaming space, not sure what that means yet, but I will be looking closer at their site to see if they are actually distributing the software for 180 or if 180 is distributing Warner Bros games to kids with the adware installed. This is where we, as consumers need to start boycotting companies that actually partner with adware and spyware companies, like Warner Bros., they are funding the adware model. Companies like Warner Bros may as well distribute the adware themselves. So, now we can either pay for their shows, or get free crap with their crap. Looks like they are shutting down their message boards, although some posts have May 1st dates, the only email I could find so far is legal@wb.com and privacy@wb.com. Email them and let them know what you think of 180Solutions and their practices. We have to start somewhere and it may as well be Warner Bros we send a message to.
Mart says:
You would think that they would stop themselves from doin g this after the Sony Rootkit mess.
May 10th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
David Johnston says:
Why did they choose to partner with 180Solutions, of all companies? I’m fine watching ads during a TV show, but I don’t want ad-delivering software or spyware put on my machine. That seems to be the only thing 180Solutions does though, so I’m not looking forward to this.
May 10th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
JR says:
“Funding the adware model?” Welcome to the 21st century - or maybe you are still in the 20th century - adware is what made network TV free for the last 70 or so years, and if you don’t like the ads, then you turn off the TV and read a book. At least now, thanks to the 1-to-1 nature of the Internet, the entertainment and the advertising (adware) that supports it can both be more relevant and tailored to the individual. Spyware is a different matter altogether, but I don’t see that in this deal.
Boycotting ad-supported entertainment is like the buggy-makers thumbing their noses at Ford. Totally out of touch with where the world is going.
May 10th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Jimmy says:
JR, please, 180Soultions is not the future we want to be headed in. If you, or anyone else wants this stuff on your pc, that is your right, but I don’t, and most other people don’t either, especially considering the millions of pc’s that this crap has been forced onto, read a few of the articles on this site and others to see what kind of distribution model they really have. 180Solutions won’t be around for 70 years, wait and see. And I don’t think you can compare tv commercials to adware.
May 10th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
David Johnston says:
For a good example of how to deliver TV over the internet, look at what ABC is doing here: http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing
They don’t install any extra software on your PC (I think it uses Flash) and they can still deliver ads when you watch the show. There’s no need to install any special ad-delivering software.
May 10th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Mark says:
Can you say D’oh. Obviously the people at the WB are apparently lliving in their own world, or they are too lazy to do a little research beyond the obvious ‘We are a great company’ marketing BS from 180.
May 10th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
MarcosV says:
Interesting that bittorrent is tossed in the mix. So I get to pay $1 or more per TV episode or movie and have my precious uplink bandwidth taken up to boot?
Can you use a standard BitTorrent client where you can see what’s going on or something they force you to use with limited visibility on what’s going on.
I too wonder about what sort of games were being distributed by 180Solutions.
May 10th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
Inglix the Mad says:
JR
Welcome to the 21st century - or maybe you are still in the 20th century - adware is what made network TV free for the last 70 or so years, and if you don’t like the ads, then you turn off the TV and read a book.
The difference is a TV advertisement won’t crash my TV. Adware has an annoying tendency to be poorly written and crash computers. Oh and 180 games are similar to bejeweled and such from what I’ve seen. My friend’s mom trashed the computer he gave her to use in two months with 180.Zango.Cash downloads.
May 10th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Jasper says:
My guess is that WB just need to install some of the wonderful 180 tools on all their computers.
I’m sure one person out on the net knows how to use the ad ware to suck out some good films that we can get for free, after all that’s what the 180 software do, installing back doors to your system.
May 10th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
Karl says:
As an alternative to listening to the howls of fear from the ill informed, you could try to watch one of the shows, understand the install and uninstall process and make an informed decision. I understand that it is easier to just moo with the cows but its likely better to understand the facts for yourself.
This is the future, JR is right. Free movies, tv shows, and games are what people want. If they did not, companies like 180 (and NBC, ABC, FOX, CNN, MTV, …) would all be out of business already unlike the movie studios which are trying really hard to find a way for people to continue to pay.
May 10th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Inglix the Mad says:
Karl This is the future, JR is right. Free movies, tv shows, and games are what people want. If they did not, companies like 180 (and NBC, ABC, FOX, CNN, MTV, …) would all be out of business already unlike the movie studios which are trying really hard to find a way for people to continue to pay.
I’ll tell you what. I’ll introduce you to my little brother in college. He fixes computers. It usually takes two or three times at US$100-US$150 per repair (according to him), but I literally watched one parent drag every single one of their kids one visit. That parent then told them to listen (to my brother, the tech) and after he was done said “If this happens again, the computer will be disconnected from the Internet, the high speed will be canceled, and it will be formatted and reloaded with nobody’s stuff being saved. Got it?”
Kids and older people who don’t know crap about computers are the primary victims of adware. Kids will believe that things are really “free” (and they aren’t) despite the warnings. Click-through EULA’s don’t help either. I don’t believe that your standard TV requires installation either.
This bull is why standard TV will NOT go away. Karl, you and JR are just helping to perpetuate the culture of lies. 180Solutions software, in many cases, cannot be uninstalled without using a 3rd party utility!
Basically, if this is the future, get ready for your TV to crash.
May 11th, 2006 at 5:22 am
WTH says:
Wasn’t 180solutions recently in the news for helping or distributing Kiddy porn?
May 11th, 2006 at 9:35 am
Dru says:
Well I for one will be completely boycotting any company that works with any these idiots. So I won’t be dealing with Warner Brothers, Sony, or Dell (MyWay Search Assist).
May 11th, 2006 at 11:08 am
Bill M says:
Thanks Dru — if anyone can get a complete list of companies using 180 I would like to have it so I can avoid them.
May 11th, 2006 at 11:48 am
ReveNews - Jimmy Daniels says:
More on WarnerBros and 180Solutions
Okay, I’ll admit I meant to follow up on my post about WarnerBros partnering with Zango, but it just completely slipped my mind until now, when I ran into a post on digg.com about it. And boy is it an…
July 27th, 2006 at 6:18 am
Tech News and Tips from Tipsdr.com says:
Kids, Cartoons and Adware
Are screensavers really a problem? Asks a siteadvisor blog entry, and according to their results, they are, big time.
We counted 318 children’s television programs currently airing on English language networks in the United States. We decided to sear…
September 4th, 2006 at 9:04 am