If you have seen the news lately, you have noticed huge chatter about the numerous companies bringing TV to the Internet. What you really should ask yourself is why would so many of the Big Guns like Fox, NBC, Viacom & CBS to name just a few, be putting so much money into Internet TV and how will it effect me?Let me give you the short story. Way back, there was a time when only 3 or 4 TV networks ruled broadcast TV and therefor held the monopoly on TV ad revenue. There were no cable or satellite TV and the Internet was in its infancy. Now, fast forward 10 years. DVR's, video games, DVD's and the Internet are literally stealing more and more viewers every day from broadcast TV providers.
What happens next? As the number of broadcast TV viewers fall, so does the number of TV advertisers. These sponsors see the downward trend and scramble to find better ways to utilize their advertising dollars. Now we begin to notice the "Catch 22". The TV networks see a plummeting income stream and search for cost saving measures -- can anyone say Jay Leno? They begin pumping out cheap to produce game shows and reality TV, show fewer new episodes and increase the number of advertisements but at the same time they begin investing in Internet TV.
Does anyone see it yet? Ahh.. now you're starting to get it. If the networks can't afford to produce a quality product for broadcast TV, how is putting the same crap on the internet going to help? The answer is, it will not..... well it won't help the viewer anyway. It will help the TV networks as the advertisers again start advertising providing them revenue. But the viewer will still be left with the same low quality content only now they can watch it on their TV and their computer.
Sure, the networks will eventually realize this and may even take steps to fix the problem. But this is a long way down the road. For now, we the viewers are stuck with bargain basement, cheap to produce broadcast and Internet TV. I guess the recession hits us from many angles.




