Posted on 04/29/2008 4:35:26 AM PDT by abb
The WB brand, born as a broadcast network in 1995 and closed in 2006, will return as an online video Web site, combining short original series with classic shows, the Warner Brothers Television Group announced Monday.
TheWB.com, and a complementary site for children called KidsWB.com, are part of a “digital destination” strategy by Warner Brothers, a subsidiary of Time Warner, to tailor Web sites to specific audiences.
In trying to compete for consumers’ time, Warner and other media companies have sought new outlets for content, sometimes bypassing the traditional network structure and creating broadband Internet channels.
“My 20-year-old daughter and her friends are watching ‘One Tree Hill’ and ‘Pushing Daisies,’ but not on television,” Bruce Rosenblum, the president of the Warner television group, said. “They’re watching on laptops and cellphones. Here’s the interesting part — to them, that is television.”
The Web site, to start in a test form next month, will focus on those consumers — 16- to 34-year-olds, particularly women — with free ad-supported episodes of “Gilmore Girls,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Smallville” and other series once on WB.
The WB broadcast network merged with UPN to form a new brand, the CW, in 2006. Warner and the CBS Corporation are partners for the network, which has suffered ratings declines in its second season.
Episodes of other Warner productions, most notably “Friends” and “The O.C.,” will also be streamed online.
Along with archived shows, Warner hopes to attract users with made-for-Internet video series, including ones headed by McG, who is best known for directing the “Charlie’s Angels” films and whose real name is Joseph McGinty Nichol, and Josh Schwartz, the executive producer of “The O.C.” and “Gossip Girl.”
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Network evening newscasts will go dark after the '08 elections and their news divisions disbanded.
ping
“...he’s back.”
“Hello, ma baby, hello, my honey, hello, my ragtime gal...send me a kiss by wire...baby, my heart’s on fire....”
Several sources are ‘broadcasting’ tv programs and movies via the web.
This gives the viewer the option of watching on his/her own schedule.
The quality is fairly decent; comparable to standard def TV.
Some include:
AOL’s in2tv
fancast.com
veoh.com
netflix.com
Most of the broadcast networks and many cable networks now have many of their program available online after their initial viewing on the TV/cable. Some have even pre-broadcast a new program via the web before it hit the ‘airwaves’.
Many of the newer digital tv’s have rgb/video inputs, so by connecting to a computer, one can actually access a website on the computer and view it on the tv.
And by 2010, what we’ll see is that programmers will offer first-run TV shows not only over satellite and cable in high-definition, but also in encrypted MP4/h.264 formats for video-capable iPods and encrypted .WMV format for most other video-capable portable media players.
Promise?
Now that AOL has become TW's 'Yahoo', T/W is again concentrating on making the Farenheit 451 vision of interactive wall screens a reality.
UPN, which stood for "You People's Network."
http://blogs.mediapost.com/online_minute/?p=1725
Just An Online Minute… Buffy’s Ghost: WB Comes Back, Online
Posted April 29th, 2008 by Wendy Davis
Long-defunct TV shows have found new life online, on sites like Hulu.com or AOL’s in2TV. And now, an old TV network is also being resurrected on the Web.
The WB network, which folded in 2006, will launch online at WB.com next month, with a slate of free, ad-supported programs including “Smallville,” “Gilmore Girls” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
The network also has tapped “Charlie’s Angels” director McG and Josh Schwartz, executive producer of “Gossip Girl,” to create new Web-only clips.
Viewers can already stream some of the WB.com’s TV programs on other sites, or can purchase DVDs or downloads of them, which raises the question why people would watch on WB.com. But for The WB, there’s little risk to launching its own site. On the contrary, if it can draw more revenue from its own site than it’s now getting elsewhere, it’s hard to see how the new site could hurt the company.
The network says its target demographic for the show is between ages 16 and 34, but undoubtedly many viewers are younger. In some ways, putting shows aimed at teens on the Web makes even more sense than reviving adult-oriented programs like “Seinfeld” online. After all, few young teens or tweens have enough disposable income to purchase DVDs of “Smallville.”
Additionally, many teens don’t see anything unusual about watching TV programs on the Web. “My 20-year-old daughter and her friends are watching ‘One Tree Hill’ and ‘Pushing Daisies,’ but not on television,” Bruce Rosenblum, the president of the Warner television group, told The New York Times.
It’s not surprising that people are gravitating towards watching TV online, where shows can be viewed on demand instead of times arbitrarily set by the networks. Perhaps even more important for some teens, the Web has no V-chip, which certainly is a draw for those who can’t access shows they want on television screens.
After all, few young teens or tweens have enough disposable income to purchase DVDs of "Smallville."Yet they find enough disposable income to buy similarly priced games? I got to call bull.
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