Nearly one-fifth of all television programs seen in the last year were watch by viewers online. According to a report released last week by Integrated Media Measurement Inc., the Internet is quickly becoming one of the primary delivery vehicles for standard “network†television content.
The more affluent a household, the more likely they are to find and watch TV content over the Internet. In the study group, households with income in excess of $80,000 per year are 55% more likely to watch TV programming over the Internet.
Conversely, households with an income lower than $40,000 tend to tune into their favorite shows on a standard television at the time the content is scheduled for broadcast. Affluent women aged 25 - 44 with collage degrees and high paying jobs make up the largest demographic group in the survey.
Another finding in the survey showed that for the first time, online viewers are tuning into entire episodes of content rather than looking for shorter segments they might have missed or enjoyed enough to watch a second time.
The trend towards online viewing has extended the life of a dramatic 10-part mini-series, Terminal City, which was shot and scripted in Victoria BC. Following its critically acclaimed runs on the Movie Network, Movie Central and the Sundance Channel, Terminal City will be available for download starting on August 5 via EZTakes.com.
EZTakes has an interesting business model. For fees ranging from $1.99 to $19.95 (and possibly higher), users can legally download feature length movies from a catalog spanning over 4000 titles. All titles are licensed with monies being returned to content creators. Partially funded by adverting revenues and partly from fees paid by users, EZTakes is a great example of how media will be delivered to consumers in the future.
Terminal City is a good example of the type of content being made for Internet distribution. Filmed on a budget of only $12million, the series is a dark-comedy chronicling the life of a woman whose battle with breast cancer is the topic of a reality TV show. Witty, topical and well acted; the series was created without the enormous overhead of network TV shows. It’s good to see the show find syndication on the Internet.
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Have a question and need quick answers? 
EZTakes is interesting, that’s true.
However, when EZTakes claims that they offer unbreakable DRM and digital copy protection, such a claim cannot be sustained.
DRM does not exist, since every digital file can be down-converted to analog and then redigitized: EZTakes is basically lying here.
Ron Corrington
Comment by Ron Corrington — Saturday, August 9, 2008 @ 5:49 pm
Digital rights management (DRM) is a generic term that refers to access control technologies used by hardware manufacturers, publishers and copyright holders to limit usage of digital media or devices. DRM is controversial and rightfully so, as consumers avoid it wherever and whenever it crops up.
Ez-takes and its constant insistance on DRM, is more of a hindrance for any filmmaker and producer. The people who would use download features are realistically not there: they download from p2p sites anyways. DRM does not actually exist, because any content can be downgraded to analog and then digitzed again; thus ez-takes’ claims of DRM are misleading, if mot false.
For independent producers other and better options such as filmbay ,brosmedia and xing are available. Their networking and distribution features are well beyond the standard fare, suggesting a web 3.0 notion. Indy producers need useful tools. Time will tell how things will pan out, but at least there are some good choices out there.
Dave
Comment by David — Sunday, November 2, 2008 @ 12:50 pm