CBS has slowly begun to roll out an HTML5 version of it’s site to cater to mobile devices lacking Flash support. More specifically, the iPad. This is great news for iPad users and hopefully a trend that the other networks continue to follow. While ABC does not have an HTML5 version of it’s site, it does offer it’s video catalog through a dedicated iPad app. CBS has stated that they plan to release a dedicated iPad app (to hopefully replace their lame first attempt) but not until they have finished converting their Flash video offerings online. Currently, online Survivor is available through the new HTML5 video version of the site. CBS plans to continue developement over the summer with hopes that all video is HTML5 ready in time for the Fall TV season. The updates to their site coming first makes sense as enabling an HTML5 version opens the door for more devices than just the iPad. It also gives CBS time for some “lessons learned” before creating a new iPad app. Hopefully, this is another signal of the shift away from Flash for video. I’m not one of the “Flash is dead” evangelists, it just needs to be used where appropriate. And it’s not good for video for a variety of reasons.

As for Hulu, there are now two big networks (ABC, CBS) serving their video content in iPad friendly formats and it would be foolish of the other networks not to follow suit. This is unfortunate because of Hulu’s ease of use and “one-stop shop” for all TV viewing online, but I don’t see how it could happen at this point. The networks are learning that they can manage their own video and may not need Hulu after all (see “Comedy Central leaves Hulu“). So consumers will be stuck with multiple apps/sites to pull in all their video. But it the ultimate end is the ability to drop cable all together, it may be worth the slight frustration of changing between apps. Besides, multi-tasking is coming

I’m sure countless fanboys who got an iPad on Saturday (who’s wive’s didn’t say No) raced hope to fire up their new toy and watch a 30 second clip of Big Band Theory. No, more likely they nabbed the ABC app and were able to watch full streaming episodes of Lost (albeit with commercials and via wi-fi only streaming). When will the networks learn that their content isn’t THAT valuable. For $50 you can get an HD antenna and watch most of the major networks in HD for FREE. Not to mention being able to stream the shows from the network websites from a computer. So why change the model for this device? You could argue that they don’t want to cut into their possible profits from the shows in the iTunes store but that doesn’t seem to bother ABC. Whatever their rationale, why go to the effort of even creating a CBS app that only plays clips? That’s like creating a movie theater that only shows trailers.

Hopefully the HTML5 video we saw on the CBS site turns out to be the real way they plan on offering full episodes to all users. That way it’s a one-stop location for video and a separate app doesn’t have to be maintined.