TV....online?

It is interesting to note the most recent advances in the convergence of different media - specifically the convergence of televsion with the web. It has become commonplace these days to go to a traditional news site and find video accompanying online stories that used to be primarily made up of text. Sites like CNN.com, or even a local network affiliate like Washington's NBC4, now offer plenty of video to keep broadcast news buffs satisfied. A new aspect these days of video online is the streaming of full television shows. Two weeks ago Google streamed the pilot episode of UPN's new sitcom "Everybody Hate's Chris" for free - all you had to do was search for it on Google. MediaPost Publications says that this is the first of many television shows to go online - Yahoo, AOL, and MSN all have deals in the works, and some already aired television programming.

I find this interesting because last week I got to see what I believe is the future of television online. I like to be involved with as much television production as I can literally get my hands on, and luckily last Friday I was able to snag a one-day gig as a teleprompter operator at Belo Broadcasting. Belo is a media conglomerate, much like Hearst Broadcasting, which owns a lot of affiliate news stations around the country. I went to Belo's Washington news bureau, which feeds Washington news to the affiliates, but Belo also does in-house production for other companies - I worked on a webcast for the Department of Education.

The show centered around a Department of Education program for early childhood literacy called EvenStart. The show was a live, interactive webcast, which encouraged viewers to call in or email questions for the panel of guests. We used a normal television studio, equipped with a control room and everything, but the broadcast went live to EvenStart.org. The webcast itself was not that exciting, probably because I don't have kids...but the process was very cool to take part in. The producers sat next to me taking calls and emails, and when the moderator wasn't reading the teleprompter would I type in new questions for him to ask the panel. It was a little hectic at first, but we ended up taking about 7 viewer questions and seemlessly adding them into the show. This really made me think about where television is headed - will live television start broadcasting straight to the web? Maybe in the next few years broadcast news will stream right onto the Internet. I really think that more television shows will turn up online, as we have already seen with "Everybody Loves Chris". ***Unfortunately I have not been able to find the webcast online after the live show, but the EvenStart claims that it will eventually be archived online, so I'll keep you posted if I find it.