The savvy guide to the Internet-TV connection

As USA Today would put, “We’re watching TV on our PC’s.”

Daily usage of online video is up by 56 percent over the last year, according to research reported by TelecomTV.

The survey said 9 percent of Americans watched online video on a daily basis last year; today 52 per cent of 12- to 64-year old Americans watch online video at least once a week. Eighty percent of the 18- to 24-year old male demographic watches online video at least once a week, according to the survey. The corresponding figure for females in that age group is 53 percent, a smaller percentage, but still a significant number.

And what are they watching? It’s not just movie previews anymore, but online video news and weather reports, the study says.

Oh, yes, and idiotic home videos on YouTube. But they’re also watching humorous and well-crafted video blogs like Ask A Ninja and Rocketboom, whose principals we met this week at a conference in Israel (lovely and talented folks, all of them).

Fueling the growth is the jump in home wireless networks, now in one of every three U.S. homes, up 156 percent in two years.

But wait, what’s Internet TV? Rocketboom is available on TiVo. MSM are putting episodes online. And what’s that doing to the way TV viewership is measured?

Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe says: “As convergence takes place between TV and the Internet, the nature of what is classed as online and offline will also have to change. The question is, is someone online when watching TV over the net?”

We’re going to be thinking and writing a lot more soon on the nature of InternetTV. And what it means when ITV “graduates” from the little screen (laptop) to the big screen (plasma/LCD) and James Bond is available on the little screen (iPhone or something like it). It’s enough to make your head spin.

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TVMama will be officially launched at BlogFerence, a major, two-day blogging conference being held in Herzliya, Israel, that is attracting such blogging world superstars as Om Malik, Jessica Coen, Andrew Baron of Rocketboom, Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine of hysterically funny video blog Ask a Ninja, and Justin Kownacki from Something to be desired.

BlogFerence is being sponsored by Interdisciplinary Center, an elite private university that last year opened the first major university level journalism and communications school in Israel. We’re pleased to be teaching a course there this fall in new media.

We’re pleased to be attending this event, and will be shameless in our promotion of TVMama.

Here’s a preview of the press release we will hand out at the conference:

Say Hello To TV Mama!
Website Covering Media Streaming Devices and PC-TV Convergence Launches

Abbey Content, a developer and manager of content and websites for corporate and media clients, announces the launch of TVMama.com, a news website devoted to coverage of the emerging generation of media streamers and PC-TV convergence.

“We believe 2007 is the year that media streamers will come of age,” said Alan Abbey, President of Abbey Content. “We created TVMama.com to be the essential guide to this new generation of devices.”

TVMama.com will review new products, analyze the emerging industry and challenge hardware and software manufacturers to make their devices usable and accessible to a mainstream audience.

“More and more people are downloading and streaming content into their computers, and major industry players are viewing online distribution as the wave of the future,” Abbey said. “But it is difficult today to get that content onto the TV, which is a far more enjoyable and satisfying viewing experience than the computer. We feel the new generation of devices being developed now will eventually make the PC-TV connection a seamless and easy-to-use one that will change the way media are distributed.”

TVMama.com is aimed at industry professionals, early adopters and techno-geeks, but also is aware that TV and computer users will need help in understanding these devices in a non-technical way.

“This can be a huge industry if it is developed right,” Abbey said. “TVMama.com wants to be there to help it reach its potential. We will be critical of devices that ‘don’t get it,’ and praise those that do.”

TVMama.com will become a crucial channel for hardware and software manufacturers, as well as content distributors and developers such as the movie industry, to promote their wares. Special advertising and promotional opportunities are now available. For more information and a media kit, contact TVMama Sales, 718 210 3600, sales@abbeycontent.com.

Did we forget anything? Oh, yes: TVMama.com is a product of Abbey Content Enterprises Inc.

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