ABC and Sprint have signed a deal to offer the four most-recent episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty to Sprint customers on an on-demand basis. The deal also includes Disney Channel series such as Hannah Montana, ABC News’ Nightline and other programming reports USA Today. The offer is free to customers signed onto Sprint’s $20 per month data plan and will eventually include commercials (I’m guessing they don’t include the ads on TV so ABC and Sprint can sell the extra ad space). ABC’s rationale for the move is given by Anne Sweeney, president of Disney ABC Television Group: “Viewers who try shows on other platforms often begin watching them on TV as well.”

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The ABC also argues that “on-demand is what people expect. Why should mobile be any different?”, a dig at the iPhone and the need to buy episodes or clips and then side-load them to the handset. Of course, it also means that users will be watching the shows similar to TV instead of saving them like a DVD—leaving the gate open to selling the series later. The quality of Sprint handsets is noted as 15 frames per second, half that of TV, so there’s always the potential to charge for a higher quality service.