YahooTV

SpaceAdmiral writes "The New York Times is running a story on Yahoo TV. The story focuses on Lloyd Braun's plan to expand Yahoo! News into a more TV-like format." From the article: "Mr. Braun's handiwork is just starting to be seen at Yahoo. And as he increasingly puts his stamp on the company, the rest of the media - both old and new - are watching carefully, if not nervously. As chairman of ABC's entertainment group, Mr. Braun had a penchant for big offbeat concepts like 'Lost,' which won the Emmy for best drama. At Yahoo, why not create programs in genres that have worked on TV but not really on the Web? Sitcoms, dramas, talk shows, even a short daily humorous take on the news much like Jon Stewart's 'Daily Show' are in the works."

HQ Videos

[Unsus]

It would be really nice if they released high-quality videos; however, I don't see them doing this unless they embrace torrents to minimize the bandwidth costs. World of Warcraft utilized users' upload for patches even though they charge a monthly fee. I can't imagine yahoo releasing HQ videos of shows without doing the same.

Interesting Concept..

[One Childish N00b]

This looks to be an interesting concept for Yahoo, and maybe an admission that they've lost the just-plain-search battle with Google (that said, I'm a big fan of http://search.yahoo.com/ [yahoo.com], Google-like interface with Yahoo's faster-updated index - and they don't seem to index half the link-farm 'blogs', not that I've seen how well the Google Blog Search will filter those out of the mainstream search engine) and are moving into being the web's first site-based multimedia provider - browse the index, click the show you want and watch it, full-screen streaming.

Yahoo has always been the type to move towards multimedia content such as this, with their emphasis on cramming everything into one page versus Google's 'just search, but if you poke around we do other things too' mentality. (not criticising either one, they both clearly work well as both have produced highly profitable companies) The bandwidth for doing something like a site supplying news broadcasts and other traditionally TV-based media - and have it watchable for most normal people - is almost here, and if Yahoo manages to get on the bandwagon early and build up their range between now and the time when Joe Average has the bandwidth to have good-quality full-screen video, they could get the jump on Google to provide, like Braun suggests, things like news broadcasts, and maybe sports shows and other TV shows besides - like the DRM'ed download system the BBC suggested for their site a while back, only with streaming video rather than downloading - a system that, with the proper protections, will be easier to swallow for the content providers - the media conglomerates - too.

This could be very interesting.

Transport not the media is the current problem

[Anonymous Coward]

I honestly feel like all the creative genius in the world when it comes to media content cannot overcome the problem of transporting it online to consumers. Recently I moved to a new location which has left me with crummy dial-up access. My browsing habits have changed to better accomodate my lack of bandwidth and that has resulted in media-heavy sites being the first on the chopping block. Furthermore, TV over the internet is further hindered by the fact that multiple computer users watching different (or even the same) program doesn't scale as nicely as traditional TV. Quite frankly, until ultra high bandwidth connections are ubiquitous amongst users and providers can support the load, this service cannot take off. The next issue is the user experience. Who wants to watch television on a little monitor for one person when going into the living room means a larger TV with room for everyone? Once those high bandwidth connections are in place, we would then need to make sure there is a computer in every living room. I think the ideas listed are great but they are ahead of their time. Until the issues I've listed are taken care of, shows like this will remain the territory of a small percentage of users.

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Bored? Photo gallery time [ranaventures.com].

Good.. cause' Fox News, CNN, and CNBC are JUNK.

[brxndxn]

You can watch 24 hours worth of flipping through Fox News, CNN, and CNBC to get the same amount of news you'd get from 10 minutes of browsing through slashdot.org and fark.com...

The news nowadays is just sensationalized crap completely edited for a bunch of sheep. If there's an article that may hurt the parent companies of any of the media conglomerates, it's not shown. If there's a motorcycle chase where the motorcyclist gets away, thus showing that the justice isn't 100%, it's edited and ignored. (happened about a month ago while I was watching Fox News)

This Yahoo News is a good thing. Hopefully, they'll make a TV-like format that actually shows some NEWS and not just a bunch of small news made big to get ratings...

Hopefully Yahoo will take a cue from Univision. You can get more news from a 15-minute halftime report in the middle of a soccer game on Univision than you can from a day of any of the American networks... and that's even if you don't speak Spanish!

Oh wait.. Yahoo is already a big conglomerate allied with other big fat conglomerates.. Something tells me this will be more of the same, but with pretty new technology.

Re:Good.. cause' Fox News, CNN, and CNBC are JUNK.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hrm, can't really speak of the networks you've mentioned, but the BBC does quite a decent job at objectively reporting the news over here in the UK. I take it this is a "US" only discussion?

Re:Transport not the media is the current problem

[NanoGator]

" Quite frankly, until ultra high bandwidth connections are ubiquitous amongst users and providers can support the load, this service cannot take off."

We're already seeing video feeds from a variety of sites. As the years go by, this only gets better. Admittedly, though, life would be a lot easier if they'd toss the need to stream and go with downloadable formats.

" The next issue is the user experience. Who wants to watch television on a little monitor for one person when going into the living room means a larger TV with room for everyone?"

Anybody with a girlfriend who can't stand sci-fi. I'm serious. The more shows that end up on the net that you can get 'on-demand', the less need there will be to cram the family into the living room to argue about what to watch. Houses with a computer for each occupant aren't so hard to come by these days.

"Until the issues I've listed are taken care of, shows like this will remain the territory of a small percentage of users."

I will agree with the point that conditions are not ideal for taking over millions of homes. On the other hand, considering just how popular BitTorrent is with downloading of TV shows, I'd say the market's ripe for an entry. That's where this sort of thing needs to start. Every year, it becomes more and more popular. More shows come along. More people watch the shows. The idea spreads. And so on.

Think about how the internet became popularized and hopefully you'll get an idea of where I'm coming from.