The television industry is vastly changing in ways that you and I can hardly imagine that it makes it difficult to define what it really is these days. From Wikipedia, it says…
“
Television, sometimes known as TV, the boob tube, or Tele is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting moving images and sound. Television can transmit images that are monochrome (black-and-white), in color, or in three dimensions. The name television can refer specifically to a television set, a television program, or the medium of television transmission. Television is an iconic mass medium, serving as a conduit for entertainment, advertising and news.”
Although some of these are still true, most have been given entirely new definitions that the terms and meanings no longer applies when we talk about TV or TV programming. Long ago TV signals were broadcast via communication towers owned by certain TV networks, but now you can get programming from the World Wide Web! And probably, in the future, radio and TV will all be linked to the internet and broadcasting towers will be a thing of the past.
Internet TV will be a Lucrative Business for Start-Ups
You may have heard about Aereo, Live-TV and Pursuit Channel, well unlike their giant corporate analogues, these companies started with very little in their hands – and yet now they make the headlines and fight legal battles. That’s because of the money they make per audience share! And it hurts the competition; also there are more advertisers on the web who are willing to pay a certain price to get their products endorsed than the ones the corporate media empires have contracts with. And compared to the cable and satellite TV networks, they pale in comparison to the number of audience an internet TV station could reach on the web.
Plus the whole technological innovation is geared towards the favor of the internet TV businesses, so it’s basically a landslide and the corporate media giants will have to play a whole new ball game if they want to survive up to the next few decades or so.
Crowd Sourcing/Funding
Another advantage you’ll have if you’ll set up an internet TV business is that you can do crowd sourcing or crowd funding! Netflix started early and that’s why they’re ahead of the curve now, but even so, the little guys too can compete on the web through crowd sourcing. Crowd sourcing is a method used by small web businesses who would solicit funding for operational costs of their online business, which in this case is internet TV. In some cases business owners would only need half of the funds or less to launch their product or service. With a well-written sales pitch, web users mostly respond positively to their request and sometimes the payoff is the great TV series that can be streamed online for free or the donors’ names get mentioned in a blog in appreciation for their contributions.
Audience Demand
How did you feel when Fox cancelled Firefly back in November of 2002? Yes, I can still remember how heartbroken I was when they announced that the studio won’t be making a second season for the sci-fi flick, when it deserved several seasons on the slate. And when “we, the people” demanded for more, they just sat on their hands. Why? Because they’re 20th Century Fox! That’s why. And there’s nothing you or I could do about it. Don’t you just hate corporate aristocracy? It’s pointless hypocrisy if you asked me! Well, this time around they don’t get to play the A-holes and douche bags just because they can, because this time, it is we, the people who will control the web and demand what kind of shows we want. It doesn’t matter even if they won’t budge because, you know, we can crowd source and start our own internet TV network and beat theirs! So much for competition. And that, folks, is the best advantage that web-based TV programming can give us – freedom.
Diversified TV Programming
Because there are only a few to none screening processes, practically anyone can create their own movie or TV show and air it on an internet TV station. Unlike the arena of corporate media where there are dozens of filters to go through and just end up getting treated like Adrianne Palicki’s Wonder Woman that got cancelled before it even aired, you will get your chance to broadcast your film or TV series. This means that there will be the possibility of diversified programming and we’ll get to experience talents from all over the world. There will be no boundaries!
The mainstream media can complain about it all they want, but there’s going to be a new “mainstream” media soon – and it’s called, internet TV. In the mean time I’ll go ahead and bet on the little guys in this battle.
