The forgotten story of AOL's In2TV, which helped invent binge TV way before Netflix
- Before Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, AOL kicked off the streaming TV era in 2005 with In2TV.
- The ad supported video hub featured a library of classic Warner Bros. shows, including "Eight is Enough," "Growing Pains" and "Welcome Back Kotter."
- The TV site was one of the first places people could watch full episodes of shows on the web, and a rare example of a successful byproduct of the rocky AOL/Time Warner merger.
Today, millions of people are streaming their favorite shows on demand. Services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime are completely disrupting the media business. But some would argue this was all started by AOL.
AOL of course is known for its early role in getting millions of Americans online. But way back in 2005 it may have kicked off the binge TV revolution.
Now a forgotten footnote in the much maligned AOL/Time Warner merger, that November AOL rolled out In2TV.
The desktop-centric channel featured free, ad-supported episodes of a slew of TV classics and non-classics, including "Chico and the Man," "Lois and Clark" and "Growing Pains" and yes, the John Travolta 1970s starmaker "Welcome Back Kotter."
While it only lasted a few years, the liberating viewing trends that In2TV unleashed were unstoppable. Here is a brief oral history of In2TV from those who were there:
Eric Frankel, CEO of the personalized digital ad firm AdGreetz, ran distribution for Warner Bros. at the time:
"I came up with it. I ran a $1.2 billion domestic distribution business at Warner at the time. We had tens of thousands of shows that we would try and get on television. One of the things I realized was, one of the terrific ways to grow a business is to invent new clients. We realized this whole internet thing was happening. What if we aggregate a bunch of shows?
"My First stop was Yahoo, which was run by Terry Semel at the time. Terry, for whatever reason, set me up with a bunch of content execs, including Lloyd Braun. [Braun, a former ABC executive ran Yahoo's media group at that time. He did not respond to a request for comment.]
"Long story short, he said no. I was shocked they didn't get it.
"We had been married somewhat unhappily to AOL, and I knew [then president] Jon Miller. I sent him a note and said, "I have this idea and want to talk to you.' He said. 'Sure, I'll see you at 6pm on a Tuesday.' I get down to Dulles and they keep me waiting, and then they move me into a room and its Jon and Kevin Conroy [then EVP of AOL's media networks group].
Prominent media investor Jon Miller, who ran AOL at the time of the In2TV launch, noted that in 2005, many people were just getting broadband connections in their homes:
"I blessed it and said, 'If there's going to be broadband there's going to be video. There wasn't at the time. Now it's an obvious statement. I thought, 'People are going to watch shows online. The logic is as simple as that."
Conroy, who's since held top media posts at Univision and until recently MGM:
"Everything that can be said and written about the AOL/Time Warner era has been written. But the truth of the matter is there were some pretty remarkable things that happened despite the bullshit corporate politics."
In2TV launched amidst plenty of skepticism, but also landed mainstream press coverage in USA Today, Entertainment Weekly and the Washington Post. The group even took out ads in Times Square in the New York Times.
Frankel: "The reality was, people actually watched. We got lots and lots of plays, even with a fairly under promoted group of channels. If they would have kept at it, wasn't like nobody watched it. It worked."
In2TV offered six channels, including Drama Rama (soaps like "Falcon Crest") and Heroes and Horrors (reruns of "Wonder Woman" and the lizard-alien sci-fi classic "V.") The site also carried streaming video ads from companies like Procter & Gamble.
Besides shows, In2TV featured companion videos, such as theme song singalongs and compilations of early TV show appearances by stars like Brad Pitt and George Clooney.
Former WB network president Garth Ancier, who joined the In2TV effort midstream after the WB broadcast network was folded into the CW network in 2006:
"I had just wrapped WB [the now defunct broadcast TV network known for 90s shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."] We turned off the lights and handed over the keys to the CW [broadcast network] next day.
"I sat on the same floor with Frankel. He had started it. I tend to gravitate to stuff that is more unusual, and this was so early in video streaming. I remember AOL people didn't have a flash player in their dialup system.
It was really a mess technologically, trying to make all the systems talk to each other. But there was a lot of great stuff in the library. They had Hanna Barbera and Looney Tunes shows. So we said 'Let's try to program like a TV network. Create a personality.'"
Conroy says that Time Warner leadership started to take notice:
"I'll never forget, [Time Warner CEO] Jeff Bewkes was so impressed with it that he used it in a presentation at a top management company meeting as as an example of what could be built. He was not a big synergy guy, but he was really impressed with what we had done.
"In2TV was really the precursor to the first generation of Netflix. We got alot of stuff done and were first in many areas [at AOL], but no one really wanted to pay attention. It was much more popular to be writing about the dysfunction."
Even with In2TV's budding success, the landscape changed quickly. Apple was suddenly selling full episodes of shows like "Lost" via iTunes. Hulu was around the corner. Most of the players aren't sure exactly when In2TV shut down. By 2009, AOL was spun off from Time Warner, unwinding the failed merger. Some are left wondering what might have been.
Frankel: "When you were the only guy in town you had a major advantage. It might have taken one, two, three or or five years to build it right, but we pretty much sort of invented how it would all work [in streaming]. Such is life."
Conroy: "The downside to In2TV was that it was desktop only. Mobile wasn't a thing yet. So how many people are going to sit down in front of their computer to watch TV shows. Had Roku been around then, history might have been written very differently."