A vast array of professional and semiprofessional producers are starting to use those tools to create ad-friendly entertainment and news videos expressly for the Web. The goal is to dramatically change people's video-viewing habits — and cash in on a potentially enormous business opportunity.
"It's like the early days of cable," says former Viacom executive Herb Scannell, now CEO of Internet video investment and support firm Next New Networks. "We're inventing new business models, new talent and new programming models."
Internet users already can find countless fresh choices in the middle ground between reruns of slick network TV programming, such as the shows on Hulu.com, and amateur clips such as the kind popularized by YouTube.
Popular genres for original Web productions include dramatic series (Lonelygirl15and Prom Queen), topical comedy (BarelyPolitical.com, 236.com and comic Will Ferrell's Funny Or Die), news analysis (TalkingPointsMemo) and specialized interests (for example, ThreadBanger offers the latest about sewing and knitting).
Producers have powerful incentive to test the market: Ad spending for Internet videos will rise 455% by 2011 to $4.3 billion, says research firm eMarketer."It's growing faster than any other advertising category," says George Kliavkoff, NBC Universal's chief digital officer. "There's just a sea change." That's one reason his company and other major TV network owners are starting to dip their toes into original Web production. Over the past few weeks:
