Not too long ago, Paul expressed his excitement over the online availability of the Wimbledon tennis championship via a MediaZone-powered application. He even went so far as to admit he'd be willing to pay the $24.99 price tag in order to get his hands on the all-access pass for the online video offering. But for those of you that would like to view the championship finals this weekend for free, MediaZone has just given us 50 passes for Mashable readers. Click here to request your promotional code for free access.
There have been some questions regarding the potential success rate of live video offerings via the Web, as the cost of streaming versus profits may not be ideal this early on. That's typically where advertising comes into play, especially when tacked onto any video-on-demand clips that are accessible after the live sessions have ended.
In chatting with Paul about the MediaZone live coverage and checking it out for a day on my own, I certainly appreciated that commercials don't interrupt the live coverage, but even the ads that play during the VOD clips afterwards aren't bothersome. Many broadcasters are hoping that this combined long tail approach to live and on-demand coverage will provide the flexible quality and control over their media that consumers seek.