For some time I’ve been saying that the Web will do to TV a greater carnage than what the Web did to print.  I’m biased because I am in web video, but ask yourself what came first: my belief that web video will kill TV or my desire to get into web video?

Anyway, a few interesting pieces today: Will It Take Television 10 Years To Learn The Lesson Of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times?  Good question.

Will the networks spend a decade pouring their efforts into closed Internet video offerings that no one seems to be interested in? Will they continue to lock up their content with DRM, when people’s attention is moving to a larger variety of video players than ever? Will they continue to sell a paltry number of videos via iTunes, while people are downloading free Internet videos by the billions?

I’d say by virtue of TV being a $250B offline revenue stream, TV cannot simply embrace the Web because the upside in web video is so small for TV companies that that would be suicidal.  So they are in a far tougher spot than print ever was or will be.  Mind you, the more “good content” (read: not user generated crap) we find online, the more advertising dollars will flow to the Web, but it won’t be fast enough or large enough to make a dent in TV company revenues.  Hence the tough spot and why TV companies are nervous and envious these days.  It’s also why I’d be buying up every web video startup if I were a TV exec.  But again, I am biased.  Why?   The article I linked to asks:

If the networks do wait a decade to free their content, who will be their competition when they finally do open up?

Again, good question.   All I am doing is stating the obvious, after all; a NYT article states: Web Videos Stealing TV Viewers, and Marketers.

• Digg this Blog
• Share on Facebook
• WatchMojo on Twitter
• WatchMojo on YouTube
• Add to Favorites
• WatchMojo Newsletter