Internet Network Company

Since the networks (NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX) are slow to put content online to download I feel it is time that a new company is formed to create web only television shows. The company could start like Fox did in the 90's with a primetime line up each day consisting of 2 to 3 hours of shows to download. (Fox today has some of the best primetime shows with The Simpsons and 24) The shows would be available to download in the television style. For example a show will “air” or be ready for download at a given time and day then the viewers can download and watch the show at their convenience. The viewers could also subscribe to a show to automatically be downloaded every week. ITunes has created a place to find and download podcasts and vidcasts you can also subscribe so a very similar model exists. Most of these shows are website based, meaning the content comes from a website like CNet News, Slashdot Review and DiggNation. Other shows are stand alones and have websites like MySportsRadio.com and Photoshoptv.com.

I feel the podcast/vidcast space is ripe for a new company to form an internet podcast/vidcast network that solely creates news shows, sitcoms, reality shows and other content seen on television but at a higher quality from what is currently on the web now. The value of a company doing this is for cross advertising other shows and bulk ads run across many shows.

Maybe a car, cola, computer, soap, cereal, or other consumer product company will not advertise on a single podcast/vidcast show but maybe they will advertise across a group of shows delivered by a single company. Companies that may look and feel like the old broadcast companies but are really a company of the future.

The realities of podcasts/vidcasts are they will be less expensive than regular television shows. There are three components to podcasts/vidcasts, production, bandwidth and download count. The first two are the expense of making the podcasts/vidcasts and the last one is a rough count of viewers/subscribers. With broadcast/cable television there are more expenses with license airwaves, broadcast fees, they must fill the airwaves with 24 hour content and production costs.

A news show vidcast could be very different from their television/ cable counterparts. Let’s say you want to make a 24 hour news podcast/vidcast. Instead of recycling the news over and over like they do on Fox News or CNN, you can just make updates to news segments. It could be like Today’s News 1.0 and then Today’s News 2.0. The new version is only created when a significant amount of new information is collected and ready to present. Or add a new news story. The viewers to the news show could download only the news they want.