[Update: Shows are put on the web site the day after they are broadcast. Don’t yet know how long or whether they will archive them.]

ABC is broadcasting Alias, Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Commander-in-Chief over the Internet “with limited commercials.” (I’m five minutes in with no commercials yet.) Playback quality is excellent but the image window is small (but bigger than my iPod video screen). I’m watching Alias.

The commercials opened a new window. In the lower right corner it says the show will be back in thirty seconds and there is a countdown. Then the commercial appears. After a few seconds, the thirty seconds are up and I can click out of the commercial and back to the show. Commercials were all trailers for movies: Pixar’s Cars, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest , and Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto.

Setup takes almost the full thirty seconds then I can click to return to the show, without watching any more of the commercial. Nice. An opt-out commercial.

There are only three commercials and they all play before the 20-minute mark leaving over twenty minutes with no commercials or pauses.