I recently watched two “TV shows” over the web, and found the experience equivalent to watching a show on traditional TV in every way.  In some ways it was preferable to traditional TV.

It’s been at least 10 years since the tech evangelists starting predicting that Broadcast entertainment would shift to the internet, and kill the big networks.  And as usual, they turned out to be wildly optimistic.  The big networks and cable companies are doing just fine, and will continue to dominate the entertainment market for some time to come.  But they do have reason to be nervous about the future.

For many years, the shift of content to the web was hampered by technology issues.  The bandwidth that most people had access to was insufficient, and the file formats for video inconsistent.  But recently the market penetration of fast broadband speeds increased dramatically, and a few years ago the Flash plug-in for video became a nearly ubiquitous standard.  Soon HTML5 will become the standard, and then video will be easily accessed without a browser plug-in.  Even Adobe has seen the writing on the wall and is getting aboard that train.  So my earlier attempts to watch long-form video over the web, which were hampered by file format incompatibility, and constant pauses for “buffering”, were transformed into an experience much like watching TV over a cable connection.  But it still wasn’t a business that could compete with the networks.

Hulu came online, and Apple started selling shows, but they were just repeats of content that was produced for, and originally shown on, traditional TV or Theater platforms.  Those views were just an ancillary revenue stream for the established studios and networks.  If you missed a show on TV (and hadn’t recorded it yourself) you could find that content for sale on the web.  But you had to pay extra for it (Apple TV and Hulu plus), or it would be ad-supported.  Sure, there were new networks like Break Media, and Revison 3 that did original programs, but they were aimed at small niche audiences, and had the sort of production values that looked more like YouTube videos than professional programming.  They tended to be unscripted, or documentary style, and were low-budget content that weren’t even an attempt to create a mass audience.  The traditional TV audience was not about to transfer their attention to the web en masse for that.  And the big portals like AOL and Yahoo commissioned programs, but they didn’t attract much of a following.

But now, the type of high-quality programs that the networks and cable companies produce are turning up online.  And they are being made specifically for the web distribution platform.  They have first-rate writing, acting, and production values, and are scripted long-form shows just like we’re used to seeing on TV.  It took a long time to get here, but it’s pretty cool.

The first example I will mention is called “The Booth At The End”.  It was produced in Canada (originally aired on cable, the episodes are around 23 minutes).  Michael Eisner’s company Vuguru bought the US rights and put it out on Hulu.  I watched the first episode just to see what it was like, and I got hooked.  It has a fascinating premise about a guy who can grant miracles, but only in return for taking on some task that he dispenses.  And the tasks are not easy, or morally acceptable.  There are only 5 episodes so far, and it was inexpensive to shoot (just one location for the entire show), but I thought it was really well done.  And I’d watch more.  It’s ad-supported (unless you pay for Hulu plus, a subscription service), but the ad load is about half of what a typical network or cable show would have (4 minutes per episode by my estimate), so the advertising wasn’t too annoying.  The ad breaks were only a minute long so you didn’t feel the need to go off and do something else while they ran.  Check it out if you have a few minutes.

The other show I’ll mention here just came out and it was the product of a Hollywood production company (AMC Digital Studios), and Hollywood talent.  It’s a comedy called “The Trivial Pursuits of Arthur Banks”, and features some recognizable actors.  Again, I watched it on Hulu.  The ad support is limited to one sponsor (Verizon) and the ads are minimal (just one pre-roll in the first episode).  It’s a contemporary comedy, about a Hollywood playwright and his relationship issues, done in a wry tone, and shot in stylish black & white.  It looks great, is written and acted well, and the characters are interesting.  It’s everything that one would expect from a TV show, only it was made specifically for the web (episodes are around 15 minutes long).

So it’s happened at last:  first-rate TV shows made exclusively for web distribution.  They are just a drop in the bucket so far, but the market will only grow, and perhaps quickly if these shows succeed financially.  The network and cable companies should be nervous now.