Kill your TV.

Because now you can watch everything online. At least that’s the premise of Firebrand, launching soon and handling all of your online commercial needs. Check out a video here on some of its features that were announced at OMMA. Other blogs have picked up on this so I won’t rehash their rants. It does bring up other bigger issues however,namely, how TV is trying to make a go of it in the online space. Will brands flock to it? Will it have real content? Hard to say. Nobody took Fox seriously as a fourth network when it debuted. Nobody took YouTube serious either, yet here it is providing me with endless hours of future hopeful Darwin Awards nominees. It’s also become a network in its own right.

The real challange for the TV online community though is two-fold: the quality of content and the method of generating revenue from distributing it. The industry thinks those two issues go hand in hand. I think they’re mutally exclusive. I’d say this to them: why is it my problem you haven’t figured out a way to make money off advertising?

First, you have to deal with the issue of content.

Which MySpaceTV is also getting into with a show originally meant for the networks. It’s a start. Give them credit for at least doing something more than featuring another music video of my boyfirend’s AWESOME BAND!!!!!! Still, it’ll take some A- or at least B-list talent willing to cross the creative picket line of doing TV on the internet. It’s the same stigma that was attached to cable when it started offering original programming, and long before that, actors in film who never did TV. (Start off in commercials, sure, but don’t ever go back if you wanted to be taken seriously.)

It won’t get off the ground either if all it’s based on is reruns. There has to be original content at some point. Something beyond the usual clips of idiots on YouTube running around on fire during a backyard wrestling match. And that means real actors.

Which could be aided further another way. Through the countless YouTube mashups, website forums and blogs, that actors, musicans and other creatives have already been laying the groundwork indirectly without knowing it. The resurgent popularity of both B- and C-list celebrities via blogs alone has helped the cause–and their Q Score. Even an A-lister gets street cred now if they mess up and someone just happens to upload a clip of it.

Just go on Oprah or The View later and apologize.

Not to mention how much internet opinion already helps rescue shows like Jericho. This may be what the industry needs in order to build that foundation for solid content. (TV did this for years with the film industry and its endless marathons of classic movies. Think people would have gone to see Die Hard 4 without the previous three flicks being overplayed so much on cable?)

Also helping the online cause is the networks’ own websites and blogs that promote their existing TV lineups. That will help transition things–as long as they don’t try and use the same ad model. Uh-oh. Too late. They’re starting to now on YouTube, iFilm and the recent NBC announcement to embed commercials in all of its ‘free’ shows online. Good luck.

All this will do is create a void for another commercial-free service down the road to step in and offer true commercial-free content. (And the other double-dipping ad scams are news services which run commercials before their video clips.)

Like I said, it’s not my problem the network hasn’t figured out a way to charge me for ads they turn around and sell, then profit from. Networks migrating and repurposing their content for the internet under the guise of ‘free’ can’t justify having to sell ads there as well, just to cover costs. What costs? They already paid for those from the TV advertising they sold.

Not to mention, the show‘s been produced. What cost is there in generating a QuickTime off of it? Ad space on shows run online are gravy for them if they can con viewers into watching the same :30 they saw on TV. Now, some people could care less and will watch a show even if it means they have to sit through a spot. Others won’t want to.

Having said all that, it’s probably moot. Enough people will likely give the internet TV thing in general a try, just like the interest kids have in a new toy.

As for me, while I may be throwing my remote at the TV sometimes, I’m not quite ready to throw it out just yet.

Tags: OMMA, Firebrand