ABC entered new territory May 1st as it began offering full length episodes of Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Alias online via ABC.com. Yes, we're as shocked as you. ABC will be offering the shows on-demand during a two month trial to test the consumer reaction and we would assume how the business model pans out.

The episodes are completely free of charge but users will come across commercials just as if they viewed it via traditional TV.

We trialed it ourselves and asked a few others to gauge their reaction. Based upon our results and the feedback we received, everyone agreed the video and sound quality is surprisingly good. Most people gave it two thumbs up and quote of the day was "that's pretty pimp".

Now to offset that, don't be surprised if you encounter issues while ABC works out the kinks. For instance, we received a connection error to the streaming server and others had to attempt several times before finally connecting. Not the best user experience but are consumers more forgiving since this is online TV? We'll see.

Overall, there are no complaints from us. Whether we are fans of the shows being featured or not, the fact that ABC is trialing such an endeavor is a feat in the least.

We look forward to the next 2 months to see how ABC evolves the experience and what the consumer reaction is.

For a second opinion, Steve Johnson at the Chicago Tribune gives a good review of the service in, "ABC's Internet experiment still a bit 'Lost' inside corporate firewalls".

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