Yahoo TV

Until now, creating interactive multimedia programs and internet shows to replace traditional television has had a little success. But Yahoo seems to be making plans in that direction. Experts speculate that Yahoo may be influencing Hollywood studios and other creators to make advancements in the area of producing internet video interactive programs.
The potential size of the internet audience for such programs on Yahoo only is quite impressive. Worldwide it could come over 300 million. Certaily, each program would have its own audience size and the quality of the internet connection along with other factors would make a difference in the actual number that each program could reach online. However, the size of the potential exposure is quite large – it is projected to reach near a billion in the next 5, 6 years.

The beauty of web casting interactive multimedia programs also lays in the nearly free and boundary-less reach of world audiences via the internet. Certainly, there are limitations in terms of technology, connection speed and ip delivery in many parts of the world. But the future seems promising considering the fast technological advancements in the last decade.
Currently, Yahoo seems to be working on web casting of popular cable series. Examples include the popular cable series, Fat Actress, behind-the-scenes of The Contender and The Apprentice and more. As 75 percent of Yahoo’s users use high speed connection, as Yahoo’s chairman stated recently, streaming videos could gain an amazing popularity.
Yahoo, is not alone in its experimental web castings, America Online also web casts episodes of popular TV and musical performance series.
Yahoo also hired entertainment figures such as past ABC chief of programs Lloyd Braun in late 2004 to manage its media department and transfered its content units to Santa Monica where the former MGM headquarters were.

But before one jumps to conclusions that Yahoo is planning on turning into a Hollowood studio and coming up with some big hit movie productions lets look at other recent changes that Yahoo did. They bough Flikr, started a new blog community, upgraded the search engine algorythm, increased their free email storage and more. All of these examples show how important it is to Yahoo to develop social networking and to build online communities in its actual strategy.
In the battle for audience Yahoo is taking advantage of its position as a community portal, a market segment where Google can not compete for now.