TV on the Internet: Here to Stay
CBS, ABC, and NBC all have put full episodes of their TV shows on their websites. FOX recently partnered with MySpace to deliver their shows online during the Major League Baseball playoffs. I’m not sure what CWTV (the new TV network formed by UPN and the WB) has planned, but I hope they will follow suit.
Today I watched my first full-length episode of a TV show online (it was Standoff via the FOX/Myspace partnership). Overall, it was a great experience and I am highly likely to watch shows online in the future. Here are some of the reasons why:
- Size. The size of the player was reasonable and I could expand to full-screen if I wanted to.
- Ads. Advertisements are unavoidable, and these were limited to 15 seconds in addition to ads on the page. I actually expected more ads with more advertisers.
- Content. I enjoyed the pilot episode of Standoff.
- Control. I could jump to any part of the episode and pause it.
However, Internet TV does not mean that there is no usage for a television set. After all, most of us do not have large computer monitors in front of a comfy chair. Also, it will be a long time (if at all) before HD content is delivered over the Internet.
For the users, a central place to go and watch all the shows would be best. I’m not sure about the legality of sites like Viidoo that deliver live TV on the net, but a similar solution would be nice that combines all the networks–and it doesn’t have to be live. Or maybe, YouTube and Google are already working on that?
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