Saul Hansell has an excellent piece today in the The New York Times recapping the ability of very, very niche programmers to create video outlets on the Internet. He starts out with a London-based sailing enthusiast who, when he couldn’t make the economics of a sailing channel work with BSkyB, launched a web-based sailing channel, Sail.tv.
Even the big media companies are picking up on this long-tail, or “slivercast” trend. Hansell’s piece notes that Discovery Communications is gearing up to launch a series of new online video channels, with one kicking off tomorrow.
Discovery Communications, which has been a master of the current system, creating 15 different cable channels including Animal Planet and Discovery Health, is now exploring even more specialized services over the Internet. One will be introduced tomorrow for $9.95 a month. It will offer 30,000 video clips excerpted from its library of documentaries and other educational programs to help grade school and high school students with their homework. In the future, other services will offer content focused on narrow topics in travel, science and health.Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 3:58 PM | Print | Comments (0)
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