Internet TV Helps Cable Network Capture Broader Audience

The recent uptick in sales for Microsoft's Media Center PC (via Brightcove) signals new opportunities for cable networks to aggregate niche demand and capture increased market share. This is especially true given younger audience segments who may be predisposed to embrace short-format programming. Today, AdAge reports that Scripps Networks is launching an original, 13-part Web video series on FoodNetwork.com during Thanksgiving week as a way to increase their traditional viewing audience by cross pollinating with younger, tech-savvy information seekers.

"The online series follows food trends in five cities and features a popular young talent who hosts a show on the Scripps-owned Food Network called Good Deal With Dave Lieberman. Because Mr. Lieberman is in his mid-20s, Scripps hopes that his contemporaries, who are about 15 years younger than the middle-aged audience the cable network draws, will watch the Web series and then discover the cable programming."

This direct-to-consumer brand of Internet TV is a first glimpse at an emerging venue for media planners to engage in niche targeting. On the horizon are a series of distribution platforms, such as Brightcove, Popcast and Kontiki (as well as PCF's DTV, on the non-profit side), that will support content distribution with interstitial advertising and other forms of narrowcast e-commerce applications. The question for networks like Scripps will be whether to develop homegrown Internet TV applications or use third party distribution platforms. As the efficiency, usability, and long-tail revenue potential of these platforms comes into focus, the choice will be obvious.

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