Showtime Bullish on Free VOD

Buoyed by strong results and bursting to tout upcoming comedy series "Weeds," Showtime will continue pushing its free VOD play on Comcast, svp, marketing Geof Rochester says. "This is perfect," he says of the play that reaches all Comcast’s digital HHs, even those that are not Showtime subs. The service (Cfax, 4/25) refreshes monthly and will feature excerpts from Weeds and "The Barbershop," "abouts," behind-the-scenes material and specials, such as Mike Tyson’s final fight. "This is a complement to our marketing," but goes beyond other types of advertising in that Showtime is able to monitor how many viewers watch the free VOD, Rochester says. Episodes of "Fat Actress" garnered 500K views on Comcast free VOD, he says. "We’ll take any opportunity to give exposure to our content, because we’re confident viewers will then come back and subscribe," he says. VOD and the other so- called "disruptive technologies" go to the heart of [CTAM Summit], since they give "the viewer choice and control."