Blogs on New Media Practices

IP Democracy asked an interesting question that piqued OMPG's interest. We all know that video over the Internet is becoming an important discussion point for major networks but what should it be called. Our suggestion below: 

Broadcasting (‘casting’ in general) implies a push medium. The difference with all of the online content is that the networks are not ‘casting’ but simply allowing content to be pulled.

We think any term that is going to become the default for describing video distribution/consumption over the Internet can not have traditional media connotations. So a word that implies openness, availability, consumer control….hummm…Internet on-demand it…released for on-demand on Internet….

Could a show or movie simply be iReleased? Yep, we like it. For example: “The first four Studio 60’s will be iReleased prior to their television broadcast” or “House will be iReleased every Tuesday at 8pm Eastern” or “does anyone know when West Wing’s iRelease date is?”. If apple has the monopoly on iAnything, then eRelease or vRelease could work as well.

iRelease, eRelease or vRelease all have positive connotations as release is a generally positive word associated with anticipation and freeing. i (or v or e) cover the necessary web referral. Our personal vavorite is iRelease (for internet released) but eReleased (or electronically released) and vReleased (for virtually released) both have some catch to them.

While release does have some traditional media connotations (movie releases, dvd releases...) we think it best describes a point in time when the consumer is then allowed to decide whether or not they wish to pursue the content other the channel of release. In these terms the Internet is just a new channel that a content producer could announce the availability of their content, even though it is probably the most important since the television.