TechCrunch posted today that a new study by Motorola has found that 45% of Europeans now watch television online. Motorola’s Karl Elliot told the BBC: “Viewers across Europe are no longer satisfied with fitting into schedules dictated by broadcasters and are turning to the choice and flexibility offered by TV over the internet….We are witnessing a nation of citizen schedulers who are in control of their entertainment, allowing them to watch what they want, how and when they want it.”

Some who commented on this TechCrunch article argued that they do not believe this could be such a high percentage. In any case, whether it’s 45% or even a bit less, the message is still clear - people are saying: I want my internet tv! If you’ve been following my blog for a while, this must not come as a surprise to you.

Jeff Pulver has recently written a very interesting article entitled: “Internet TV may pose threat to Cable Companies by Decade’s End”. In it, he writes:

“In the near future, I expect cable companies may start to suffer a similar parallel fate as the wireline phone companies. This eventually will mean billions of dollars of revenue loss without any notion of being able to replace the lost revenue. And I expect we will start to see this trend happen first in the 16-24 year old demographic.

How does this happen? It happens because there is a portion of the existing 16-24 generation which does not watch traditional broadcast TV and they are not watching Cable TV. What they are watching is TV content on the internet. And when these kids leave home and go off to college, they are not signing up for cable TV service in their dorm rooms. Instead they are continuing to watch their favorite TV shows thanks to BitTorrent or are going online to the network websites to catch up with a missed show or in some cases they are also going to iTunes and purchasing the shows to watch on their video iPods and computers.”

Kfir Pravda also warns the cable companies:

“It seems to me that these industries are kind of dinosaurs, looking at the meteor coming and thinking that everything will be ok. Just like some of the big production companies, missing the fact that people create good content for a fraction of the money they are spending.”

Lastly, Jim Johnson points out that:

“Michael Eisner has a teen drama airing on MySpace. The BBC recently launched iPlayer. NBC, NewsCorp, and Comcast have signed an agreement to provide shows online. The BBC is the latest European network to provide online programming.”

Need more proof?

Technorati tags: techcrunch, tv, motorola, bbc, internet, internet tv, jeff pulver, cable, bittorrent, itunes, ipod, kfir pravda, jim johnson, michael eisner, myspace, iplayer, nbc, newscorp, comcast

Last Thursday I attended the Garage Geeks event entitled “A peak into the future of TV”. Amongst the speakers were the amazing Jeff Pulver, who spoke about how easy it is for each of us to create our own internet TV channel these days using the free, technological platforms which are already available to us, and Amit Or, co-founder of InLive, who embedded live graphs into his powerpoint presentation that were the result of us calling InLive’s IVR system in real time.

The event itself took place in a real garage and the atmosphere was just surreal. As Gil Rosen writes in his blog: “It’s a real junky (but funky) garage, in a real industrial zone, with very little space, plastic chairs, no real food, coffee or toilets but it GOD DAMN WORKED! Something about the surreal surroundings made it feel like we are are actually talking about a real revolution (which it is)”.

Gil is right. There is a real revolution emerging right before our eyes which will change the way we have viewed and defined TV till now. I believe that within a few years time, we will see the internet establish itself as the leader of all media and that more and more services and technologies will be offered to those watching and those who want to be watched. All I can say is: Watch out broadcast TV - times are a-changin’ and you’re going down.

Check out Jeff’s presentation below (The film needed to be split into two parts due to YouTube’s limits):

Technorati tags: tv, garage geeks, jeff pulver, internet, technology, amit or, inlive, gil rosen, revolution, broadcasting, youtube

Jeff Pulver and Chris Brogan invite you to watch their live TV show later today at 12 PM EST (9am PST / 1700 GST / 1800 CET / 1900 Tel Aviv). To watch, please visit the show page on Ustream.tv.

Jeff & Chris urge you all to call in with any comments or questions you have regarding internet tv (The call-in number will be announced during the show).

As for the reason for the new show? Jeff says: “In the past few days I had seen others go live on Ustream.tv with just a laptop and a webcam and I wanted to see if I could make something of higher production value for our viewers.”

The changes we are experiencing today in the media world are astounding and there’s no turning back. In Jeff’s words: “From a traditional media perspective, I could not fathom what the costs would have been for us to rent satellite time for us to broadcast our live Internet TV show into all of the locations where we had viewers….now anyone with a laptop, broadband access and a webcam can create their own live Internet TV show in a matter of minutes.”

The first live call-in show was held April 18th and today will mark its second appearance. If for some reason, you cannot view it today, don’t worry, there will be more to come. Make sure to check the show page for updates.

Technorati tags: jeff pulver, chris brogan, internet tv, ustream.tv, media

The user-generated video media landscape is changing quickly. While all of us enjoy seeing frat boys burping on one another or cute puppies who have special licking skills on YouTube every once in a while, Network2 offers those of us looking for higher quality, episodic programming on the web, an alternative.

Network2 which launched on October 16th, 2006, has created an internet TV guide of the best independently produced video shows on the web. Shows were picked based on their quality and originality. You can find over 500 web shows all aggregated into one site, add your own comments, rate the shows, and add tags to help users find what they’re looking for.

Once you’ve found your favorite shows, you can create your own channel, share it with friends, create a widget on your site, and also load it into your video browser like FireAnt or iTunes, even into your portable media player. You can check out my channel widget on this blog. Just click on any of the shows and you will be redirected to the episode page.

It is not surprising that the idea to create Network2 originated with Jeff Pulver, who had made VoIP a household term and VON a force. Pulver along with Video-on-the-Net Alliance, has also recently petitioned the FCC to keep Internet video free of the kinds of content regulations that currently apply to broadcasting and cable services. See petition here.

I have to say that I am already hooked on some of the shows. My favorites so far: The Clip Show, which reviews the world of vloggers, sort of like the “Talk Soup” of Vlogging, WallStrip which mixes stock news and pop culture (highly recommended), Alive in Baghdad featuring citizen journalists covering the war with a camcorder, and Technorati’s own show covering just about everything on the web and beyond.

For vloggers, Network2 gives the platform to show their talent to the world and gain publicity. Television and cable networks are already looking into these shows and who they want to sign up. As viewers, Network2 allows us to decide what we want to watch, when we want to watch it, and experience the amazing talent of these vloggers. Believe me, most of what I’ve watched on Network2 was much more entertaining and interesting than anything I’ve recently seen on TV.

I don’t believe that Internet TV will kill broadcast network TV nor cable, just like TV didn’t kill radio or movies, but Network2 provides a more suitable product for the world we live in today. We the viewers now hold the remote control.

Network2 had recently held a contest where they asked people to create a clip that shows others “How to Watch Internet TV“. I couldn’t end this post without showing you this hilarious video created by Adam Swan displaying just how great Network2 is compared to regular TV.

Click To Play

Lastly, for those of you who are familiar with Network2, check out the new “look and feel” of the site.

Technorati tags: network2, internettv, usergenerated, video, youtube, widget, fireant, itunes, jeff pulver, VoIP, VON, Video on the Net Alliance, FCC, The Clip Show, vlogging, Talk Soup, WallStrip, Alive in Baghdad, Technorati, TV, cable, Adam Swan

Not as thrilling as it should be…

Technorati tags: joost, commercial, web2.0, tv, video, youtube