Television is in transition. Viewership is down, and in recent months, the major networks have been cautiously stepping away from their traditional broadcast model in an attempt to broaden their audiences. The latest effort comes from ABC, which is offering full episodes of some programs online for free.

We reported on this development last month when ABC first announced its plans. Currently limited to episodes of Commander in Chief, Alias, Desperate Housewives, and Lost, ABC's new service uses Flash 8 for the video, meaning that anyone with a Flash-enabled browser can watch the programming on any platform. Each show has a sponsor and contains four 30-second commercials that cannot be skipped. The programs are divided up into sections that are bracketed by the commercials, and viewers can scrub back and forth through any part of the program up to the next commercial break.

According to the FAQ, ABC is only planning on making the episodes available until the end of June. At that time, ABC Full Episode Streaming will go on hiatus at least until the new fall season. The shows are available only to US residents, but enterprising surfers should be able to find a way around that. For now, it appears that only the four shows listed above will be made available during the trial.

The two parties that are affected the most by ABC's new offering are the network's local affiliates and Apple. Affiliates, which have been getting the short end of the stick on some of the networks' recent moves, may be short-changed on viewership if Desperate Housewives fans find something else to do on Sunday nights knowing that they'll be able to watch the episode later. If ABC and its affiliates can create something along the lines of what NBC has done, it may ameliorate those concerns somewhat. Similarly, Apple may see a loss in sales as fans of Lost decide not to drop a couple of bucks on a show they can watch for free online.

Ultimately, it's the viewers that will decide whether ABC's experiment will be a success and ultimately expanded to cover more of ABC's lineup. Having shows available on demand, on any platform, and for free in exchange for a few commercials and a sponsorship seems like a reasonable tradeoff to me. Whether ABC's partners agree is another matter entirely.