While searching for something to blog about this week I came across an interesting article on CNN.com about a new technology that is going to change the way we watch television programs. Joost is an online site where you can watch videos and it has just been relaunched last week to make watching TV online a more interactive experience. Joost will enable people to watch their favorite television shows online in full length. The Chief Executive of Joost, Mike Volpi said that the site's social features have also been improved. “People can see what their friends are watching on Joost and create groups around TV shows, characters or artists. Users will also be able to post a news feed of their and their friends' activities on Joost to other Web sites, such as social networks like Facebook.” He goes on to say that the Internet is about community building. It is going to take the site awhile to get all of their videos uploaded.
YouTube is also doing something very similar to Joost. They are also adding full-length shows to their site, which is something that couldn’t be done before on YouTube; you could only upload a maximum time of 10 minutes for a video. Jordan Hoffner who is director of content partnerships for YouTube said, “The market for long format videos on the Web is growing.” If YouTube is able to show full-length episodes it will also help the company to attract advertisers. The article also said that by the end of the year, about 45-50% of the 117 million people who watch videos online will watch full length episodes versus the 25% who watched shows online at the beginning of the year. The article also points out that its important to keep the adds “shorter and more interactive” so the viewers don’t get fed up with all the advertisements.
I think this is a very interesting concept, however, I do think it could have a negative affect on the Television industry as a whole. When people watch shows online versus watching them live it causes the shows ratings to go down. And when ratings go down, shows get cancelled. It would be interesting to know if there is a way in which they could monitor the amount of viewers who watch the shows online and include them in the show’s weekly ratings because otherwise a lot of shows could get cancelled from the invention of this new technology and I know I would personally hate it if my favorite TV show Grey’s Anatomy got cancelled!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/10/13/online.tv.joost.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch
2 comments:
I guess I don't really see the point to this new TV website. How is it more interactive? Is it going to be set up like a Wii? I personally think that it is slightly ridiculous that we are going to go so far as to include television in our social networking programs. It will be much easier to catch an episode of Grey's Anatomy whenever I miss it, but TiVo will not be very happy with this new website, especially if it is free. You also bring up the point about the show being canceled because everybody is watching it online. The website will definitely need to take that into consideration. I think a lot of clarification might answer my questions.
I think it is great that there are more options to watch shows that you may have missed. I know that I will be catching up on last week's Grey's online. However, I didn't think much about how it will hurt the television industry. Still, with on demand, and exclusive features, I think that they will do fine.
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