Video Visionaries Meld Traditional TV and the Web

By Mike Musgrove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 2, 2006; D01

Is TV moving onto the Internet or is the Internet moving onto TV? As the lines between the two begin to blur, it's getting harder to tell.

Fans of Comedy Central's "South Park," for example, can still watch the latest episode by tuning in on Wednesday nights. But they can also turn to Comedy Central's Web site to watch an ad-sponsored episode. If they're willing to cough up a couple of dollars, they can even download the shows for viewing through an Xbox or an iPod.

At iVillage, a Web site that caters to women, the push is toward the TV set. On Monday, the site, which was acquired by NBC Universal this year, is launching a daytime TV show called "iVillage Live," which will be broadcast on some NBC stations, the Bravo network and the Web.

It's a nontraditional approach to broadcast television that's been growing in popularity in recent months: broadcasting shows on both the Internet and traditional TV to give advertisers as many viewers as possible. At the same time, the blurred line between traditional and online video is accommodating a growing variety of viewers: those who prefer to watch on a TV, those who gravitate more toward the Web and even those who like to watch on their mobile phones or TiVo recorders.

Thanks to popular sites like YouTube and Google Video, video content has become one of the most popular offerings on the Internet. That's led to a flood of amateur sites that look more like cable TV services, complete with "channels" -- clickable icons on a Web page that bring up a lineup of shows to watch -- that accommodate different interests.

"This is definitely the Wild West in some ways," said Adam Berrey, vice president of marketing and strategy at Brightcove, an online video company. "It's in the very early stages, and people are still learning."

So far, Brightcove customers have built online video programming networks dedicated to topics as varied as pet care and Miami night life. The channels are available only on computers, but Berrey hopes to soon offer viewers a way to watch on their TV sets.

One way Brightcove is trying to get on TV screens is to work with products connected to TV sets, such as the TiVo digital video recorder. Together, Brightcove and TiVo are creating a video portal that allows TiVo subscribers to upload homemade video clips and create unique channels -- a lineup of shows from various sources on TiVo's Now Playing list -- that friends and family members can watch through their own TiVo boxes.

"It's the democratization of video content," Berrey said. "People are going to get away from Channel 9 or Channel 10."

Heavy.com, which shows racy programming targeted at college-age men, has teamed with Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel to offer video clips for the mobile-phone crowd. It has also partnered with TiVo to get its clips on TV sets.

The movement also helps TiVo broaden its reach beyond a DVR that stores traditional television shows. By offering amateur video channels alongside shows that come in from a Heavy.com or a Cnet, as well as those recorded from ABC or HBO, the company offers a viewing experience that "otherwise wouldn't be able to exist due to the economics of television," said Tara Maitra, general manager of programming for TiVo.

Ultimately, the broader presence of programming on multiple formats could help traditional shows.

When CBS launched its channel on YouTube just over a month ago, the 300 video clips from its shows featured on the site got nearly 30 million views. Since then, ratings for the network have gone up, and viewership of "The Late Show with David Letterman," which got the biggest boost, was up by 200,000 over the past month.

"We're getting people who don't watch the show routinely to say, 'I'd forgotten how funny Dave is, I've got to go check him out again,' " said Dana McClintock, vice president of communications at CBS. "It's about exposing your content to new audiences -- and, of course, thereby making more money from it."

But putting TV shows on the Internet is only one part of the equation -- the easier part. Getting shows downloaded or streamed over the Internet to play on living-room sets has been more difficult.

Apple Computer is expected to announce a device early next year that will plug into a television set and pull in video from computers via home networks. Josh Bernoff, a technology analyst with Forrester Research, said he expected to see at least four new products that perform similar tricks at next month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"Now that there's all this video content on the Web, everyone is trying to figure out if there's any way to get it onto the television," he said.

These first attempts at melding TV and Internet video are a little lackluster; put a grainy video clip from YouTube on a television screen and it doesn't necessarily make for must-see TV, Bernoff said. And, while some TiVo owners may enjoy the TivoCast offering, so far the six-month-old service hasn't been compelling enough to sell new TiVo units for the company, he said.

"For any of these things to get interesting, you have to have access to a large catalogue of content," Bernoff said. "This is going to happen, but it will be quite a while before any of these collections are more than a curiosity."

Already, companies that offer niche programming -- such as National Geographic and Discovery -- are talking to companies such as Brightcove to explore the advertising network that could become available through new technologies. The business models are still being fine-tuned, but ad revenues are growing for online video content, Berrey said.

"This is not just another way to watch 'South Park,' " he said, "It's a way to watch a whole bunch of stuff you were never able to watch before."