I want my WebTV

• Tweet

• Tweet

San Francsco, CA – BusinessWeek and USA Today may still be the holy grail for many corporate PR departments, but given the average American still watches 4hrs and 32mins of TV per day, tonight’s Churchill Club debate on the future of television – Video Goes Internet – had some pretty big implications for us PR folks too.

If the gathered panelists from MSN, Google, MTV, Sling Media and ESPN are to be believed, the Internet is about to do to TV what TV previously did to radio – namely, drive vastly different media consumption habits, create new outlets for different types of content and – of course – change the way advertisers (and PR people) reach consumers for good.

Actually, it’s not so much ‘about to do’ as ‘is doing’. EPSN.com already has 2.5 million visitors watching video each day today. MSN says it receives the biggest viewing figures for its TV content during the working day – when nice, fast corporate networks deliver a better viewing experience.

But – as you’d expect – it’s not all plain sailing. Cable and satellite service providers don’t particularly like the idea of content creators being able to reach consumers without using their pipes and dishes. And some content providers aren’t too fond of Sling Media simply ‘slinging’ – for example – CNN’s content around the world when CNN is trying to sell CNNPipeline at a premium.

But John Papanek of ESPN and Jennifer Feikin of Google say everyone can co-exist. "Once we see some success stories (that generate revenue), the content providers will loosen up," says she. "We’ll come to regard our TV like we do the movie theater today – the screen we watch with our "friends, cocktails and snack trays," says he, suggesting Internet-based video won’t kill traditional TV either.

Now if only the industry could figure out how to manage the digital rights for all that content effectively, we’d all be settling down with our ‘PC Dinners’ before you could say "Video killed the radio star."

Then again, where there’s conflict, there’s PR opportunity…so vive la difference!

David McCulloch