Reportr.net

Image via Wikipedia Canwest’s decision to ramp up the number of TV shows it offers online might prove to be the right strategy.

It is going to stream more than 50 top series – including Knight Rider, 90210, House, Heroes, The Office and Deal or No Deal -  on the web.

Comments by Canwest executive Barbara Williams suggest the media giant has realised that the way people consume TV is changing:

We understand that our viewers aren’t always able to watch their favourite show at the designated time and our role as a broadcaster today is to offer hit TV in more places and at more times than just a traditional schedule.

The announcement has met with a positive reception from advertisers. Media in Canada quotes Rodney Perry, managing partner, director at Toronto’s MEC Interactive, as saying:

The Canwest broadband offering is a great way for us to potentially capture some lost TV ratings due to fragmentation, [as] we continue to struggle with the cost structure of broadband vs. TV and other digital media.

The news from Canwest comes as a report by Forrester Research argues that the future of TV will be a web-like experience, called  “personal TV.” It will be delivered on-demand with targeted advertising based on location and behavior.

Canwest’s decision to stream more of its shows on the web is a move towards providing this viewing experience.
It makes sense to do this in a country like Canada, where almost 9 million Canadians have broadband, ranking the country in 10th position among the 30 developed countries that make up the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The next step is to take this beyond the computer screen and offer a similar service via the TV screen. Forrester anticipates systems make TV work like the web won’t come along until 2010,with the big industry-wide shift taking place from 2012-18.

(Via Newslab.ca)