Putting All The Pieces Together

In early 2006, just as YouTube and Google Video were first making their mark, I wrote about the intersection of the Internet and television first for TCS Daily, and later, on the topic of IPTV for The Robb Report’s Home Entertainment magazine. (Not on the Web at the moment, unfortunately, and somewhat ironically.) While there have been a number of great Websites that incorporate video clips (and the production values of Michelle Malkin’s daily “Vent” segments on her Hot Air site are first class), from what I’ve seen of it so far, England’s 18 Doughty Street Website, with its slick-looking evenings’ worth of longform programming has really managed to put all the pieces together in an exemplary fashion. In a recent post, Jeff Jarvis explains what makes them tick.

As IPTV allows for full-length programs to be downloaded into television set-top boxes via broadband, expect many more channels like this. If I was an angel investor looking to fund the TV station of the future for the Web and/or IPTV, 18 Doughty Street, its format, and especially its production values, is the model I’d crib from as carefully as possible.