My digital video recorder ran out of space on Tuesday, right before the season finale of Lost. In my somewhat state of panic, my first immediate thought was to figure out how to BitTorrent the episode when I remembered that ABC recently started showing full version online episodes of several of their shows, including Lost. I visited the site, ABC, and in an instant, pulled up the episode and watched the entire thing for free. It was terrific and very smart of ABC. Here’s why:

I was going to get the episode one way or the other. There were multiple ways for me to do this, such as iTunes, BitTorrent or my friend’s house (he taped it successfully). ABC had the fastest, most-convenient way to watch it and this was the only reason I went to the site. ABC would have lost the opportunity to market to me completely.

I was a captured audience. ABC.com added non-skippable commercials to the feed. They were very short, they were interactive and I paid attention to all (3) of them.

I was exposed to other marketing outlets. ABC took back the control, brought me back to its Web site, not someone else’s, and was able to control not only its brand, but also the advertising while improving customer experience. Exploring the site further, I saw audio Podcasts of Lost (and other shows) to keep people interested/connected. These are also great marketing outlets for ABC.

This is a win-win for marketers and customers, and should be a standard practice for programming networks.