Old Media Extends Life Expectancy with New Media

I watched the TBS show "The Funniest Television Commercials" this evening. I was struck how the life expectancy of some traditional shows have been extended by the Internet. Much of the content from the TV show was advertised as being online at veryfunnyads.com. The website also includes bonus ads and commercials deemed to explicit for TV.

Two issues take form with Hollywood and the Internet. Traditional TV shows that air only one time can extend their life expectancy with the use of the internet. A second theme is that the Internet can be used as a custom filter to show content not appropriate for mainstream media (everyone has known that, but now the networks are catching on!).

The beautiful fit between Hollywood and the Internet lies in the compatibility of the media. If you're a company and want to put your content on the Internet you need to take a print based communications structure and make it digital. Making Flash presentations for your products, creating a digital map of the world and linking your sales forces, creating back-end databases and building an interactive experience. All Hollywood needs to do is convert NTSC to mpg or Quicktime and build a simple interface. Compare YouTube's interface with that of General Electric.

Content is still king! AOL was wise to buy Time Warner...they just didn't wait long enough or build the structure to take advantage of it. Look for the emergence of Hollywood on the Internet in 2007.