ABC has launched its pilot scheme to test the waters on whether viewers are prepared to switch from their TV to their computer to watch episodes of ABC shows online.

Launched on May 1 and running until the end of June, the site at dynamic.abc.go.com this week offers Desperate Housewives' "It Wasn't Meant To Happen" as well as the current episodes of Lost, Alias and Commander in Chief.

As previously reported, the episodes contain less episodes than on TV but some will interactive. Harry McCracken reviewed the new system at PC World, and was positive about the ads shown during an episode of Commander in Chief.

"The ads breaks were few in number and brief (15 to 30 seconds apiece), and you can see where they fall in the show from the moment you start to watch an episode," wrote McCraken. "A countdown during the break even tells you how long you need to wait until the ad is over. All in all, as commericals go, they're relatively painless." He commended ABC's move to test online episodes. "Between rights clearances, technology issues, and fear of annoying network affiliates, there were lots of reasons not to try this right now. Bravo to the network for giving us one more way to watch its most popular programs."

The system is restricted to US viewers only, and is in addition to the iTunes service where users can purchase advertising-free episodes that they can keep. bit-tech.net reported that the site had "buckled under demand" yesterday, and that "reports are of outages amounting to around two hours as the servers got a complete pummelling from enthusiastic punters.

Meanwhile in other video-on-demand news, Channel 4 is moving ahead with its plans for VOD in the UK and has announced that Desperate Housewives will be available in HDTV on Telewest and NTL, according to HDTV UK. This is a significant development because HDTV is launching for the first time in the UK this month, and it seems Housewives will be one of the first to benefit.

The streaming episodes can be found at dynamic.abc.go.com, and PC World's report is here. The article on the technical difficulties is here. The report on Housewives going HDTV in the UK is here.

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