It’s Replacing your Television

I was watching some tv episodes tonight @ the site Hulu.com. It’s a great website backed by FOX and NBC to try and grab some revenue from those that would otherwise illegally download. It is only open to residents of the US, but if you download and run HotSpotShield you can watch from anywhere. I’m in Canada and it works just fine.

After watching a great episode of The Office, I started thinking about how much time I spend in front of a computer instead of the television. If I want to watch an episode from any of the 12 seasons of South Park, I head over to the comedy network, for any movie I’ve ever liked, I usually check out watch-moves. Less and less of my time is spent in front of the television, and more and more is spent in front of the computer watching streaming versions of my favorite shows.

I give streaming high definition (HD) about year before it’s everywhere. Say goodbye to pricey television sets and cable boxes, your laptop or LCD monitor will be your new high-def set.

Everyone Google is Catching On

stewieI just read an interesting post over at Mathew Ingram’s blog. He delved into the question “Is Google a content company now?” in reference to their agreement with the creator of the popular television series Family Guy to host 50 two minute clips that will be distributed through their AdSense program to be collectively known as Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. These short clips will be used to deliver ads, and fans of the series will no doubt view all of them.

It’s a relatively cheap experiment and an ingenious way to get eyeballs. This will work. AdSense already includes a great set of algorithms to detect on page content. When the algorithm finds a page related to the Family Guy series, it’s logical that these clips would show, and any fan of the show would undoubtedly watch.

It is win-win for the television producers and Google who will see great success if they can hit the target audience. MacFarlane (creator of the clips) is providing a new shortened but impactful media format, and Google is providing relevant advertising to suit the content. I think it’s brilliant.

Can Your Site Handle AdSense Video?

As an AdSense publisher it’s been my experience that video ads pay better. To see the supported formats follow this link. All you need to do to enable your site to support video ads is make sure you have both text and image options enabled. The inventory is quite low, but hey, if your site is about Family Guy you just might be in luck. :)

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