Wikipedia

In2TV

In2TV was a website offering ad-supported streaming video of classic TV shows in the United States. It was operated by AOL Time Warner as an outlet for the company's archival television programming.

In2TV
Type of site
Video on demand
Available inEnglish
FoundedMarch 2006
Headquarters
United States
OwnerAOL
Warner Bros. Television
URLwww.in2tv.com

History

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In2TV was announced in November 2005 as a collaboration between AOL and Warner Bros. Television,[1] [2] [3][4] [5][6][7] at the time both being owned by the Time Warner conglomerate. The site was created in part as a counteraction against the rapid rise in popularity of video hosting sites such as YouTube; when In2TV launched, Time Warner subsequently ordered all of its content (mostly posted by users, not by Time Warner itself) off YouTube through Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices in order to divert traffic to In2TV. [citation needed] The service was launched with a party held at the Museum of Television & Radio (later renamed as The Paley Center for Media) and on March 15, 2006[8][9][10] and was later integrated with AOL Video in December 2006.

Content

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When In2TV first launched the shows were categorized into channels.[11] These included LOL (Comedy), Drama Rama (Drama), What a Rush (Action), Vintage TV (Classic), Heroes Horror (Sci-Fi/Horror), Toon Topia TV (Cartoons) and Pilot Theater (first episodes).[12][2]

In2TV also included bonus channels featuring original content based on the TV shows featured on the service. These channels included:

  • Starplay, featuring stars before they were stars
  • Betcha Didn't Know!, trivia about top TV stars
  • TV Karaoke, theme-song sing-alongs
  • Where Are They Now, updates on stars of past series
  • Rock 'n Flix, musical clips from movies

After the move to AOL video in December 2006, the channels were dropped and the shows were put into more generic categories such as Animation, Comedy, Drama, Reality, Sci-Fi, Secret Agent, Urban and en Espanol.[citation needed]

AOL Video lost its rights to the Time Warner library when AOL spun off from Time Warner in 2009 to become an independent company, which was later acquired by Verizon in 2015 and later merged with Yahoo to form Oath (later renamed as the second incarnation of Yahoo Inc.) in 2017. By the time AOL had purchased The Huffington Post (later renamed as HuffPost) in 2011,[13][14] AOL Video had been dissolved. Links to the service now redirect to Huffington Post's TV section, which contains no archival video. What remains of In2TV's content was moved over to online platforms bearing the brands of the now-defunct The WB and Kids' WB and then to Warner Bros. Discovery's Max and its FAST channels on The Roku Channel and Tubi. (with programming from Discovery's cable channels that added when WarnerMedia and Discovery merged in 2022).[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ Shields, Mike (March 24, 2018). "The forgotten story of AOL's In2TV, which helped invent binge TV way before Netflix". Business Insider. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  2. ^ a b "AOL and Warner Bros. Announce 'In2TV'" (Press release). Warner Bros. November 14, 2005. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  3. ^ "AOL to Offer Old Warner TV Shows". CBS News. November 14, 2005. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  4. ^ "AOL jumps on board web TV bandwagon". The Guardian. November 14, 2005. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  5. ^ "Internet Service to Put Classic TV on Home Computer". The New York Times. November 14, 2005. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  6. ^ "Way Too In2TV". Wired. November 14, 2005. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  7. ^ "Venture of Warner Bros., AOL to Provide Old TV Shows a New Life Online". Los Angeles Times. November 14, 2005. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  8. ^ Ryan, Amy (March 15, 2006). "Check out In2TV, AOL's new free TV-on-demand service". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  9. ^ "AOL Launches In2TV". Multichannel News. March 15, 2006. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  10. ^ "AOL IN2TV GOES LIVE, INCLUDES FOUR ADVERTISERS". Advertising Age. March 15, 2006. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
  11. ^ Mahan, Colin (March 16, 2006). "AOL is really In2TV". TV.com. Archived from the original on April 12, 2018. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  12. ^ "In2TV". PC Magazine. 30 June 2015. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  13. ^ Steel, Emily (2011-02-08). "AOL to Acquire Huffington Post". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
  14. ^ "Aol Buys The Huffington Post, Animated Version [Video]". TechCrunch. 8 February 2011. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
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