新网络

几年前，它们还不存在. 几年以后, they may be indistinguishable from the broadcast networks they were patterned after. 现在, they play a major role in bringing content to your living room and shaping the field of online video.

我说的是波动.tv, Revision3, and Next New Networks (NNN), the three online networks. If you've watched episodic shows online, there's a good chance you've seen their content. “奥巴马女孩”? 掘客网的伙计们? 葡萄酒图书馆电视? You'll find those popular shows and many more with the online big three.

内容是关键
The importance of a network is obvious in the broadcast world, where not everyone can produce and air a show. 但是为什么它们在网上还被需要呢? 毕竟, video sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo already do a great job of bringing you thousands and thousands of online shows. Anyone who dreams of stardom can easily create a video and upload it. So why organize content into networks, anyway?

“在过去, ‘network' meant that they owned a broadcast tower or they owned a berth with cable providers that guaranteed them a certain household penetration. On the internet, there is no barrier to entry. 任何人都可以在网上制作节目, anyone can launch a new channel online tomorrow,蒂姆·谢伊说, co-founder and head of audience development at NNN.

"When you put a video on the internet, you're competing with every other video that's ever been made. So it's not as easy as owning a channel and getting a rating," says Shey. "We started thinking a lot about how you'd have to reinvent television networks for the internet, and we thought networks could still play a really valuable role.

"For one thing, it's a way for viewers to find content they like," continues Shey. "One of our networks is called Indy Mogul; it's a network we created for people who really like movies and who love filmmaking. Whenever you watch an Indy Mogul video-we have five or six shows that run on the Indy Mogul network-whenever you watch one of those shows, you see branding for the Indy Mogul network, 就像你看乔恩·斯图尔特一样, 你可以看到喜剧中心的品牌. For us, that becomes a really important navigation. If you're searching for a video about Avatar and 100 video results come up, 你之前看过Indy Mogul的视频, and you see an Indy Mogul video in those results, our hope is that you're more likely to click on our video, 印第大亨品牌的视频, 比其他视频都要多, because you've already identified with that brand as something that creates videos that you like. When we first started the company 3 years ago, that was considered a pretty crazy concept." NNN recently served it's one billionth video.

Next New Networks

Presenting worthwhile content is one of the main reasons for online networks to exist. While NNN organizes shows into subnetworks such as Indy Mogul, 第三版针对的是年轻人, male tech geek with its entire body of shows. In each case, the idea is the same: If you like one of the network's shows, you might like another.

"We try to build a certain kind of reputation, 某种品牌, so there's an expectation of the type of content you're going to get, 你将得到的质量, and even the type of audience that we're making programming for,David Prager说, co-founder of Revision3 and vice president of special projects.

The online networks get their shows and build their library of content in a variety of ways. While NNN and Revision3 create content in-house and also work with outside creators, 波动.电视只与外部人才合作. Not only that, but it will sign anyone who comes along.

"When you end up producing content, you are more a studio than you are a network. It just so happens that [in] the last 30-40 years, 出于利润和经济的考虑, the television networks merged with studios. The NBC/Universal merger was completed not all that long ago. 在那之前, NBC did not have studios; they bought shows from studios and broadcast them,Mike Hudack说, 波动.电视的首席执行官.

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