What Is Internet TV?
Terms seem to be invented almost daily on the internet. We hear the new terms and think there must be something special… something we’re missing out on.
Sometimes it’s just businesses trying to create a path for their version of the latest “big thing.” Sometimes it’s marketers trying to ‘invent’ something new so they have something new to sell. Sometimes it’s just people coming up with their own terms for lack of anything better to call it.
With video and the inernet there are TONS of terms… including Internet TV, Webcast, Video on Demand and Vlog just to name a few.
Let’s take a general look at them.
INTERNET TV
Because of the increase in Internet connection speeds and the total number of people online, and the decrease in connection costs; it is increasingly common to find traditional television content, accessible freely and legally over the Internet. This comes in four basic forms:
- TV channels which exist only on the internet.
- Traditional stations that simulcast live on the net.
- Traditional stations making select content available on demand at their website (this is especially popular with news channels).
- Traditional TV stations making extra content exclusively for their website.
Parallel to this trend are attempts to more easily transmit existing pay-tv channels over the net, to a regular tv set, while retaining control over how the media is used. This is in order to protect the subscription and pay-per-view business models.
A shift in the economics of broadcasting
Initiatives to use peer-to-peer technology to distribute live TV are just starting to emerge. The main advantage of this approach over traditional distribution models is that it provides a way of sharing data delivery workloads across connected client systems as well as the distributor's own server infrastructure, which drastically decreases the operational costs for a stream provider. Costs don't rise with rising user numbers. Popular TV streams don't need to suffer from server overloads anymore, because not every user needs to access the source server.
Several regular Television broadcasters are distributing parts of their programming over the Internet such as the Chinese CCTV and the BBC. Some like pseudo.com or web62.com have created significant amounts of original streaming videos and were considered as the pioneers of Internet Televison.
The developments in P2P TV are likely to give Internet television a boost, but the industry is already fearing for a new Napster scenario, i.e. real-time TV-sharing. With the arrival of P2P TV and the ever growing number of people with a broadband connection, this year we might see Internet television break through to a mainstream audience. Some initiatives for P2P TV are already working, others are being tested.
WEBCAST
A webcast is similar in intent to a broadcast television program but designed for internet transmission. Webcast clients allow a user to connect to a server, which is distributing (webcasting) the webcast, and displays the televisual content to the user.
Initially webcasts were non interactive, in other words, the user was not able to alter the content of the webcast or to interact with the subjects of the webcast. For the most part they were also hosted live (with recordings retained for later dissemination), however more recently there has been greater overlap between video conferencing and webcasting such that webcasts have been generally consigned to being recordings of video conferences and training material where there is much less demand for an interactive session.
A notable webcast took place in September 1999 to launch NetAid, a project to promote internet use in the world's poorest countries. Three high profile concerts were to be broadcast simultaneously on the BBC, MTV and over the internet; a London concert at Wembley Stadium featuring the likes of Robbie Williams, George Michael; a New York concert featuring Bono of U2 and Wyclef Jean; a Geneva concert. The site had been designed to handle ten times the number of viewers of any previous webcast.
More recently, Live8 (AOL) claimed around 170,000 concurrent viewers (up to 400Kbps) and the BBC received about the same (10Gbps) on the day of the 7 July 2005 bombings in London. The growth of webcast traffic has roughly doubled, year on year, since 1995 and it directly linked to broadband penetration.
VIDEO ON DEMAND
Video on demand systems are systems which allow users to select and watch video content over a network as part of an interactive television system. VOD systems are either "streaming", in which viewing can start as the video streams over the Internet (or other network), or "download", in which the program is brought in its entirety to a set-top box before viewing starts.
All download and some streaming video on demand systems allow the user to pause, fast forward, fast rewind, slow forward, slow rewind, jump to previous/future frame etc. In other words to provide a large subset of VCR functionality. For streaming systems this requires more effort on the part of the server, and may also require greater network bandwidth.
It is possible to put video servers on LANs, in which case they can provide very rapid response to users.
Streaming video servers can also serve a wider community via a WAN, in which case the responsiveness may be reduced. Nevertheless, it is possible to provide streaming VOD services over a wide area network.
Download VOD services are practical to homes equipped with cable modems or DSL lines.
VLOG, VODCAST or VIDEO BLOG
A vlog or video blog is a blog (short for weblog) which uses video as the primary content; the video is linked to within a videoblog post and usually accompanied by supporting text, image, and additional meta data to provide context.
Blogs often take advantage of RSS for syndication to other web sites and aggregator software (rss readers).
With the inclusion of RSS Enclosures, which provides the ability to attach media files to a feed item/blog post, it is possible to bypass the mainstream intermediaries and openly distribute media to the masses via the Internet. Vlogs are beginning to take advantage of this technological development, just as audioblogs have in recent years via the podcast boom.
OK, don’t allow yourself to be confused. I wanted to get that out of the way so I can share one Very Simple thing with you…
No matter WHAT you want to call it – at the very simple, basic level – all we are talking about is VIDEO viewable over the INTERNET.
That’s it at a 3rd grade level. VIDEO viewable over the INTERNET.
And the act of making video to show on the internet is as simple as:
- Pick The Topic
- Create The Video
- Edit The Video
- Compress/Convert The Video
- Host Your Video
- Promote Your Video
Some will try to make it seem SO difficult but it’s just not true.
It’s just 6 simple steps. And each step is a simple process.
The most costly expenses in creating your own Internet TV Show is the video camera and the hosting fees.
I can hear you asking... so how is this supposed to make me money? If you create an entertaining video series (the series part is the key here), then you can charge a fee to access it. There's all kinds of membership scripts out there, and lots of them for free. Just do a quick Google search.
You can also sell advertising on your TV/Video site. As well, you can earn revenue from programs such as Adsense.
The most important thing I can tell you though is you have to be creative. There are tons, and I mean tons of stuff for people to entertain themselves with on the net. So you need to be creative in coming up with something that people will not only want to watch once, but keep watching, and possible even pay to watch.
I hope this article gave you some good ideas.
Best of luck,
'Til tomorrow,
Terry
Additional Resources
How To Produce Your Own Internet TV Show
The Business of Media Distribution: Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in an Online World
