Top > Webmaster > 2007 > November > 2007-11-01

TV versus Online Video

Many people have been concerned that TV is slowly dying out as the Internet continues to strengthen. The viewing of many TV shows is dramatically declining, and experts say that the decrease is evidently the result of a new and more active generation. The multitude of resources and of course, online video that they engage in, is expected to eventually overtake the role that TV has held for the last half century.

In response to the situation, TV and media giants are attempting to make television a more participatory experience, and merge the two formats together. Some of the media companies joining the online video initiative include Disney, Viacom, NBC Universal, and News Corp., who are all trying to establish partnerships with video sharing websites.

According to the CEO of Internet TV play Joost, Mike Volpi, the best way to attract the young generation and the new demographic, is to provide online video services that are not broadly available. One of the initiatives being run is by Current TV, which has established an affiliation with the social networking site, Current.com. They are providing TV viewers with the ability to comment on their programming, interact with other viewers, and even create the ads for their sponsors. The CEO and founder of Current TV, Joel Hyatt, claims that this has already proven a big success, with viewer-created ads being preferred nine to one over agency-made commercials.

Internet giant, Google, has also been active in this new awareness, and developed a filtering system for companies to detect and clock copyrighted content before it is publicized. This will enable media companies to safely post online video content, and Google is already in talks with several major businesses, such as DailyMotion. It seems their efforts are already starting to pay off.