Posted on 09/10/2007 3:54:56 PM PDT by abb
As the fall television season fast approaches, the four major broadcast networks are betting big that a lot of their viewers will be parked in front a computer screen instead of a TV. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox this year will offer more free full-length shows than ever via on-demand streaming through their own Web sites as well as through a network of third-party sites, with revenue coming from advertising.
That's on top of established tactics of distributing short clips and teasers on sites like YouTube, or selling full-length episodes as downloads through iTunes.
The push to deliver more shows through the Web comes as networks have started seeing dollars roll in from this new type of broadcasting.
James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research, said revenue from downloads and ad-supported video streaming could reach around $800 million this year.
Adams Media Research forecasts that number could grow to around $6 billion by 2011.
The ad-supported strategy builds off a series of experiments started by the networks last season, when episodes of hit shows like ABC's "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" and NBC's "Heroes" were offered as free video streams.
This season Fox and NBC are launching a service called Hulu, which will make more than a dozen hit NBC and Fox shows and related clips available for full-length viewing on Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, Comcast and MySpace. Fox and NBC will also offer free video streaming through their Web sites as well as through the Hulu site, which begins testing next month.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
ping
I hope with all that is within me that you are right.
So there will be TV shows on You Tube and My Space, and other places such as cell phones?
The technology keeps advancing, doesn’t it?
Yep, I wonder about the news divisions of the networks. People say the news divisions as individual entities are money losers for the networks. You could imagine the big wigs cutting the news divisions off. Especially with new techology also creating so much competition for their money losing news divisions.
network news is the telegraph of the 21st century
The future is almost here !!
LOL
Networks have closed-in from 50 miles to within 50 feet of competing directly with their local affiliates. Affiliates must take the full plunge into news or be pushed into oblivion. 9/10/07
Posted by Steve Boriss in Local TV news. trackback
A report from the New York Post ought to send a chill down the spine of every local TV affiliate. This fall, their networks are pushing aggressively to place more of their fresh programming on the web. Downloadable. On-demand. Free. Embedded with advertising. And, across as many platforms as possible, such as YouTube, iTunes, Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, Comcast, MySpace, Joost, Bebo, Sling Media, and their own sites. For affiliates, every viewing of such material will be an audience member lost and ad revenues denied. Networks are completely running around the network-to-affiliate-to-household broadcasting system that has supported local TV affiliates for decades.
Local affiliates once had a profitable lock on that “last 50 miles” that networks could not bridge between their long-range transmissions to metro areas and the short-range broadcasts into households. But now that networks can stream their content directly into households over the Internet, what is keeping them from completely eliminating the affiliates as middlemen? Two things. First, most households do not yet have sufficient bandwidth and systems to handle large video files, particularly those in high definition. Second, it is less pleasant to view web-based entertainment that relies on “lean forward,” PC technologies (small screen, keyboard/mouse) than “lean back,” TV technologies (large screen, relaxing in a living room environment, remote control in hand).
No doubt the bandwidth problem will be solved sooner rather than later through some combination of increased throughput and buffering technologies that finesse download times. And technologies that bridge that “last 50 feet” between PC’s and TV’s are almost at hand. What will be left will be superior on-demand TV from networks vs. inferior, old-fashioned appointment viewing (in-person or TiVo) from local affiliates. So, the only foreseeable solution is for local affiliates to transform themselves into masters of their own fate as full-time creators of original content, which for most means local and hyperlocal news. The networks are encroaching. The clock is ticking.
The big news will be what happens to wireless broadband when all that analog TV bandwidth is abandoned and relicensed.
No thanks, why should I watch those shows when there’s so much to do elsewhere on the Web? I’m online to turn my mind on, not turn it off.
:’) I found out that I get lousy reception, and the past year or so it has been getting lousier. Found out when trying to tune in a football game. Usually (and for years) I’ve been watching DVDs and such, otherwise, same here, the web.
My wife used to be a TV junkie, but now even she hasn’t touched the set in months, since I bought her a laptop and she learned how to run DVDs on it. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.