BBC, PBS and CBS duke out Internet-only TV

Apart from the appalling title, NERD TV and the supremely limited content, it looks like PBS might be getting it.

The Public Broadcasting Service plans to Webcast an Internet-only, downloadable TV series called "NerdTV," featuring interviews with technology experts ... PBS called the show an "uninterrupted hour with the smartest, funniest, and sometimes nerdiest people in high tech."

Dowloadable is good, sticking to High tech is dumb, how big an audience is that? The P is PBS is supposed to stand for Public. But the good stuff is there

Viewers will be allowed to redistribute the shows or even edit their own non-commercial versions of them.

Bingo!

The program "offers a cost-effective production model that may transform how programming is made in the future," Cindy Johanson, an executive in the network's interactive-learning unit, said in a written statement.

Errmm, I don't believe the production costs fall unless they really are proposing that the net becomes the collaborative source for the content; not very likely. Distribution? Maybe, if they use Bittorrent.

The PBS announcement comes just a few days after the BBC said it would Webcast a regular TV series a week before the shows play on air. Separately, the BBC also is preparing for a three-month pilot project in September that would allow people download audio and video segments up to one week after their original broadcast.

The key is that the BBC is project puts the content on the net before broadcast. That's the right idea. Meanwhile CBS is having a go

CBS News to Expand Web News Component
CBS News is aggressively expanding its Internet capabilities to offer a 24-hour news network with a “video jukebox” that allows consumers to construct their own online newscasts, the network announced Tuesday.

Because stories will be prepared for the Internet, they also won't necessarily look or sound the same as conventional TV stories. "We have no desire to do broadcast-like programming," Kramer says. "There's no point." Visitors to the ad-supported site will be able to create a playlist of news reports on a video player called The EyeBox. There also will be a blog, called Public Eye, providing insights into the news process.

Again, half right, it is still only one way traffic. The Brits seem to be getting a better handle, realising that the citizen journalist is now a partner in the process.