The Revolution Will Be Televised, Online

In the latest experiment in the digital entertainment foray, ABC last week announced that they will soon begin offering a select number TV shows, among them: Lost, Alias, Commander in Chief, free of charge on their online website: ABC.com. Why? They, like other networks, are testing the waters of online video and feeling out people's behavior toward watching a show online. Will this test prove fruitful as a new way to provide entertainment to consumers, while creating a sustainable new revenue stream for networks? Who the hell knows!

Americans are currently going though an interesting transition period in how we consume entertainment. TV screens are getting bigger, smaller, flatter, wider, and some aren't even TVs anymore, but rather desktop monitors, iPods, cell phones, and PSPs. The tremendous growth of broadband and the technological wizardry and marketing behind multi-functional gadgets are creating the perfect storm of cataclysmic digital consumption, transforming not only what we consume, but also how we consume our entertainment. With any new paradigm shift of consumers habits comes the lovely growing pains of corporations scrambling to find their place in a new landscape, which essentially comes down to them throwing enough shit against a wall to see what sticks. We are that wall.

What does this mean to the Average Joe? For me, it's a mix of emotions, from sheer jubilance to utter frustration. Within the past year, like many of you, I discovered iFilm and YouTube, which are essentially online versions of America's Funniest Home videos, multiplied by a million. I can spend hours watching videos from YouTube's Pet and Animal channel. Wanna see an anaconda eat a hippo? How about two cats battling it out? A giant centipede eat a mouse? All available in just a few clicks.

It recently occurred to me that I could also find some of my favorite UFC fights online as well, and I did...at least until about two weeks ago. A few tech savvy video uploaders were posting the latest Pay Per View fights only a few hours after it aired live on TV. Why pay $50 bucks, when you can get it for free? I knew it was all too good to last. Within a few days, practically all of UFC's fights were removed due from YouTube due to copyright infrigement. NBC took similar action a few months back when iFilm and YouTube was forced to remove SNL's "Lazy Sunday" skit from their video libraries. The only difference in that instance was the sheer irony that the clip's success was directly attributed to the very sites NBC hunted down to remove its content from. A perfect example of the current FUBAR state of online video content and distribution.

There will be a day in the near future where all content available on TV will also be available online. Until then, expect to be exposed to all sorts of video experiments, from 'webisodes', to 'mobisodes', to user generated content created as part of a crafty marketing campaign. Expect to have to sit through commercials to watch online videos for free, pay to watch without commercials, pay to download, provide your personal info to watch, all in the name of the almighty dollar. Nothing is free, unless of course it's illegal. And until the powers that be find a better way to regulate proprietary content on the web, it'll be up to us, the public, to determine what shit sticks and what doesn't, and do what we do best, consume.