By MALUM NALU
DISCOVERY Communications, parent company of Discovery Channel, and popular website HowStuffWorks are about to join forces to search for the perfect fusion of a major TV powerhouse and a major Web site.
HowStuffWorks recently announced the news on its website and in newsletters circulated around the world through email.
“The timing is perfect,” HowStuffWorks said.
“At this moment in history, we’re seeing the beginning of a new era for both the TV industry and the Internet, and the years ahead promise to bring tectonic shifts.
“So many technological possibilities are introduced every day that no one can really predict how it will all unfold.
“And that makes it exciting, because there is a lot of opportunity when the landscape shifts like this.”
Just think about everything that’s happening right now:
We have digital cable and satellite services increasing the number of channels.
We have HDTV, which makes TV look sharper. However, it has also increased the cost of creating shows without significantly increasing the revenue they generate.
We have huge online networks like YouTube amassing video content from all over the world and delivering it to every corner of the Web.
Because of the popularity of YouTube, many networks now deliver their content to the Web. This is changing the world of syndication. It’s also creating new revenue possibilities.
We have portable media players like the video iPod (first released in 2005). And the material is endless: People can now visit iTunes and buy individual shows or full series from a catalog of thousands.
We have digital video recorders which allow us to watch TV any time and effortlessly skip the commercials.
We are witnessing the volcanic rise of modern video games. Millions of people now sit in front of their TVs to play games rather than watch network television.
And there is the Web itself. It draws some people away from TV during their leisure hours.
That’s a lot of change in a relatively short time.
But it doesn’t change the fundamentals.
TV is so popular that hundreds of millions of people watch it daily, and TV ad revenue continues to grow.
So what about the Web?
The ‘Web video phenomenon’ (the best current example of which is YouTube) is still very new, but clearly has massive potential.
Here’s the upside: The Web has greater search capabilities than any tool of its kind, plus it offers “on-demand” viewing.
If you want to find and immediately watch a specific clip, the Web is the place to go.
Here’s the potential: The Web could very well turn into a free-wheeling, million-channel cable system where anyone can broadcast anything, and hundreds of millions of visitors search for - and find - exactly what they need.
All of which leads us back to the question: Can anyone combine the best things about TV with the best things about the Web to create something new - a sum that’s greater than its parts?
“That’s what the fusion of Discovery Communications and HowStuffWorks is all about: A giant experiment - one which we can all watch unfold,” according to HowStuffWorks.
“We are attempting to create a new media company for the 21st century.
“Take a look at Discovery and the HowStuffWorks Web site.
“They’re both powerful players in their respective domains.
“Discovery Communications has 100-plus worldwide networks and reaches some 1.5 billion viewers across the globe with programming focused on science, exploration, animals and wellness.
“HowStuffWorks has built a highly popular, easy-to-understand Web site that explains to millions of visitors a month exactly how the world works.
“Like Discovery, HSW has built a strong reputation on quality content that appeals to millions of people wanting to learn, and all of it is search-engine-friendly.”
What happens when you put these two players together?
For starters, you can leverage the strengths of each medium.
For example, HowStuffWorks can start to embed short video clips from Discovery’s networks into its articles.
In the same way, Discovery’s programming can display URLs that direct viewers to HowStuffWorks articles so that viewers can dive into HSW’s world of information.
The potential is also there to tie Web articles directly to a show.
It’s when you think of new types of programming like this - programs that can seamlessly integrate TV and the Web - that the potential opportunities for the future start to take shape.
Here’s another possibility.
“Right now, millions of users are creating low-budget YouTube videos,” says HowStuffWorks,
“Is there a way to learn from and improve on this model?
“What about building hundreds of new short-form shows on the Internet?
“Backed by the traffic and sales forces of a major media company and a major Web property, these shows could actually attract audiences and make money, with the most popular shows graduating to long-form at the network level with a core audience already in place.
“End result? It could hugely expand the number of shows available to all of us.
“What we end up with from this marriage is high-quality, credible, family-friendly, entertaining multimedia content both on television and the Web.
“People discover the content by channel surfing on TV or by searching for information on the Web.
“Once they find the content, they are able to move seamlessly back and forth between TV and the Internet.
“It’s the best of both worlds.
Our goal is to build the ultimate multimedia experience for people who want to learn about the world we live in.”

* mnalu@thenational.com.pg or SMS 6849763.

 

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