Acceptance of Internet based TV by the public

The mainstream media company, especially television company, are now facing the facts that their program, product, entertainment and information are affected by the internet era. Now, the television industry is undergoing another transformation,Web TV. It has became more and more popular in the society now. Diaz (2009) stated that the audiences are not just ready to change, but they are already doing it. Survey shows that most of the audience are willing to pay more for this web TV service.


Acceptance and adoption of Web TV by the public:
Web TV is the adoption of the internet-like interface in accessing and watching the television (Noam et. al 2004). Web TV is often been said as an interactive gadget. It uses Internet access over the home television receiver using a keyboard that attaches to the telephone line as well as the TV set for display. This service has attracted very little audience. Not much audience can really accept this. Nevertheless, the predictions of a big market for interactive TV continue to be made would be high. 


Challenges faced by Web TV:
The top issue that faced by the Internet TV now is the technical reach (Daukidis et. al 2003). According to Daukidis et. al (2003), the measure of the number of the online households are important for the Web TV providers. However, this cannot be achieve as the broadband technology is still in its beginning state today. Its acceotance and avalability must undergo some important improvements to make the Web TV a feasible alternative new media to the other media.


Watching TV online:
According to Wilson (2006), the content and the quality of web TV deffer widely is because the Internet now is very cheap that everyone can afford it. They can easily make their own videos and movies and then publish them online in the Internet. Network 2 is an example of Web TV. It is a new Web TV that just launched. It provides show such as food shows, instructional videos, video blogs as well as funny movies. Unlike the mainstream media, the censorship for the Web TV is not so tight. Web TV provides many of the shows that a normal TV channel will never wants to bring to the television. Wilson (2006)  also agreed that almost all of the content of Web TV will never being shown in the mainstream TV and this is the reason why Web TV is popular among the audience. 

Symbol of Network 2

(Source: RET 1978)

Examples of Internet-based TV programming:

• channelchooser.com
• hulu.com
• joost.com
• vimeo.com
• worldtvpc.com
• wwitv.com

However, not all of the programming are available in Malaysia, yet they are soon to be here. All in all, Web TV has a very good marketing and bright future in Malaysia. When will it be accepted all of us then? I truly believe its not far from now. 




References:

• Diaz, S. 2009, TV Everything: We're not just ready; we're already doing it, AD Net, viewed 14th June 2010, <http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/tv-everywhere-were-not-just-ready-were-already-doing-it/25187>.
• Doukidis, G.I, Mylonopoulos, N & Pouloudi, N. 2003, 'Social and economic transformation in the digital era', viewed 14th June 2010, <http://books.google.com.my/books?hl=en&lr=&id=YdICTQsmxzQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA201&dq=acceptance+of+web+TV+by+audience&ots=TXlEE-Mg82&sig=YdevVL8-YrHgjI_XBEk1tKHP0zI#v=onepage&q=&f=false>.
• Noam, E, Groebel, J & Gerbarg, D. 2004, 'Internet Television', European Institute for Media Series, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, viewed 14th June 2010,<http://www.kemt.fei.tuke.sk/predmety/KEMT451_TT/FAJCAK/Internet%20Television.pdf#page=33>.
• Wilson, C 2006, 'Watching Internet TV' Telephony Online, viewed 14th June 2010, <http://telephonyonline.com/broadband/commentary/watch_internet_tv_101706/>.