Legend of Korra Exclusively Online as of Today

Everything that has been said about this issue has been talked about ad infinitum, however now that we actually got to see an episode posted legally online in action, I think it is worth discussing how it was rolled out. This is simply an account of my personal experience so take it for what it is worth.

Networks posting entire episodes of a series to their respective websites with ads is nothing new, it's been picking up traction for quite some time now and to be honest, no one has really perfected it yet. Let's take for example Adult Swims program Rick and Morty. They have the entire first season posted on their website, however, attempting  to watch it there is an unmitigated mess. The ads are not the problem, sure ad placement could be positioned better to be less intrusive to the viewing experience while still getting the message across, but that is a whole other topic for another day. The way in which a video player is structured makes all the difference. Adult Swim has a god awful structure where in approximately 5 ads are placed on a 22 minute episode. In most cases, video players need a small amount of time to let the video buffer so it can play uninterrupted. However, after each ad, the video segment must load again. This means that after every commercial break, you must allow the video a few moments to load thus creating an even larger chasm in your viewing of the content than is needed. This is frustrating and will lead many people to go and find other means to watch the program diverting ad revenue from the production itself. In other words, how the content is rolled out could make or break a show despite it's quality. 

Moving forward to Legend of Korra, we have had a few instances already in which episodes have premiered online, namely the first two episodes of book 1, and the final four episodes of book 2. In all instances the roll out was more or less well done. As long as you gave the episodes time to buffer, there was not an issue in my experience. Occasionally though, the ads would glitch the video player and force you to reload the page and rebuffer the video all over again. This happened to me again today for episode 9 of book 3. While I'm sure this occurs in isolated incidents, it is a problem that needs to be resolved. Since ads are placed at fixed intervals on the video, if your player glitches past an ad, once you have reloaded the page and rebuffered the video, you must again sit through the ad to get back to the place where you left off. Again, I don't know how common this is, but it really puts a damper on the viewing experience. Especially for a show as fluid and detail oriented as Legend of Korra. Commercial interruption is a livable annoyance, but once you start adding glitchy video players into the equation it can make for a very disruptive viewing experience. Legend of Korra seems better fit for an HBO or Netflix type of viewing experience in which a price is paid to access an uninterrupted viewing experience. A man can dream. That being said, the web is the place for Korra as with many other shows. Television isn't dead, but it has suffered multiple heart attacks in recent years and now it's replacement is still young and growing into it's own skin. Give it a few years and despite the bumpy transition, I think things will start operating nice and smooth.