Scripted episodic shows made expressly for Web sites called Webisodes, are catching the attention of consumers. These programs emulate television in one respect in that they released at the same time each day or week, but they are much briefer.

Examples of online video include “The Burg”, about the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, which can be watched at theburg.tv, “Meth Minute 39”, a cartoon series, found on channelfrederator.com, “Roommates” and “Quarterlife”, playing both on MySpace.

Also comic actors have their video sites, as clarkandmichael.com and superdeluxe.com for Derek and Simon.

And brands as McDonald’s sponsor Web series as “The Fantastic Two”. Lowe supports “Hollywood Fast Track” series. The series “Roommates” on MySpace features the Ford Focus. And the Volvo C30 appears in episodes of an online series “Mr. Robinson’s Driving School,” at drivingschool.msn.com. All of those brands integrate products into plot lines. One of the companies that are bringing online entertainment is Broadband Enterprises.

On Friday 16 we knew that NBC had acquired “Quarterlife” for distribution as an hour long drama series on the NBC network after it has first played in eight-minute segments on several Web sites. One of the show’s creators described the deal as a revolutionary step in the creation of television entertainment. NBC will be able to replay the episodes on its Web sites after the broadcast and will sell the negatives of the episodes internationally.

”Quarterlife” series follows a group of friends in their twenties as they pursue their dreams and experience the bitter and the sweet of life.

Borders to add TV network to its superstores

Borders bookstores have created a broadcast service called Borders TV, which will be played in their 250 stores. This service is part of a master plan to create content that will direct traffic to the Website and pave the way to more cross-promotional deals with large media companies (Ford for instance will showcase its hybrid vehicles.)

Border’s partner in the venture is Ripple, a marketing firm in California that provides information like news, traffic and weather to television installed in public places, like Jack-in-the-Box restaurants and Jiffy Lube. Ripple has agreements with The New York Times, CBS and E! Entertainment.

Programming will include ‘Borders Live at 01’ and “Borders Presents”, which will highlight performances by popular music artists, as well as newsmaker interviews with public figures. Some of the celebrities that will be featured include Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and Bill Cosby.

The screens –two per store- will feature news feeds from Reuters, Yahoo! and E! Entertainment, new and bestselling DVDs and CDs, local event calendar listing, and national headlines.

Borders believe this project becomes an attractive option, since newspapers as they used to be, and television is not easily reachable.
”Our customers tend to be highly educated, more affluent and spend an average of an hour in the store.”

Intel unveils chips for improving video quality on the Web

Intel is announcing a family of microprocessor chips that will speed the availability of high-definition and full-screen quality video via the Internet. Increasing computer power will avoid today’s blurry videos, (as the ones of YouTube) and enhance the compression of digital video.

This new family, made up of 16 processors and marketed as the Intel Core 2 Extreme and Intel Core 2 Duo, will have a big impact in video and will be highly addictive, according to Intel. “Video is becoming ubiquitous on the Web,” says Intel.

These processors will first be used, starting in the first quarter of next year, in servers and high-end desktops that compress the video.

U.S. is far ahead in IPTV deployments and users

Given the hype surrounding IPTV in the U.S., it’s surprising to know that other regions, particularly Europe, are far ahead in terms of deployments, subscribers and competitive environments.

The reasons for this are many, starting with the major U.S., for being slow in rolling out IPTV services, in part because of the high costs of deploying new fiber-optic lines. In Europe, the broadband sector is more commoditized and extremely competitive, and every ISP is constantly looking for ways to boost subscribe additions.

Therefore, Europe will have roughly four times as many IPTV customers as the U.S. by the end of the year. Numerically speaking, there are as many IPTV operators in the U.S. than in Europe –well over 100. However, at least 97 percent of these are small, local telcos serving tiny areas.

By M. Amigot, IBLNEWS

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