Reinvent Technology is making a big move toward become a major player in the convergence of TV and the Internet. To that end, Reinvent has just appointed award winning TV producer David R. Sams to the newly created position of Executive Vice
President for Strategic Development, Marketing, and Creative Affairs. Sams is also an expert in TV syndication, direct marketing and Internet marketing.
(David Sams’ MySpace and bio here as well as Video interview with David Sams here)
Later in the article, David Sams added (added emphasis):
I see the Internet as being where TV was in its early years. Dr. Ham has acquired thousands of premium dot-com domain names over the past decade that collectively garner millions and millions of monthly viewers. In my opinion, these domain names are no different than TV stations or networks. Each domain serves a specific niche—just like today’s leading cable networks. Each Internet domain has access into the home—via the same coaxial cable as TV is delivered. Now that many television set manufactures are beginning to make Internet-ready TV sets, I see, for example, the day when kids passively watch the Disney Channel and the interactive DisneyChannel.com on the same tube.
Dr. Ham and Reinvent are in the unique position of creating branded Internet channels based on company-owned premium domains like Attorney.com, CheapTravel.com, God.com, Menopause.com, How.com, Hairstyles.com, Audition.com, Mother.com, Stockbroker.com, and thousands of others. The opportunity to create joint ventures, content partnerships, and clustered ad networks targeting specific niche audiences is tremendous. TV had its golden age; I now see the dawn of the medium’s platinum age as it converges with the Internet, and could not resist the opportunity to be a part of it.
The emphasis above, if you believe it has merit, is as true to any premium domain owner as it is to Reinvent. The one thing to note here is that Reinvent is looking further in the future, into something that somewhat visible but isn’t here yet, and they are making a move today. It reminds me of Mark Cuban’s move with HDNet (in video, six minutes in video) long before anyone thought a HD only channel would make sense.
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.
Robertson Davies, “A Voice from the Attic”, 1960
As happened with many other industries, it also seems to be that the future may be similar to the past, with a little change. Once it was TV, now it is the web. Once it was radio, now it is podcasting. Once it was CD’s, now it is MP3’s. Once it was a Walkman, now it is the iPod. The content/concept are similar or identical, the medium and delivery are changing. When the TV and the web come together, consumers would be able to surf channels by visiting different web addresses. So in the future, would that make domain names “surfing channels” on your TV screen? While it may be the case, how good channels are is largely Dependant on their content. If you surf your tv channels today, you will see it doesn’t really matter if you landed on one channel or another, the next one is a click away and if the content isn’t there, then you are quickly gone.
Have a great day,
Sahar
Great addition to that team, no question.
I look forward to the day where the TV and computer are integrated but I’m worried that I won’t be able to operate the remote control
Sahar,
Do you think this bodes well for .tv domains?
Rob,
.TV is a tough sale. It went through too many hands by now, still positioned wrong in my opinion. It may prevail one day, who knows.
I think channel surfing and domains is an issue of content more than domains. The perfect scenario is matching the right domain with the right content, right team, right concept. I don’t think anyone can prevail here just having one piece of the puzzle.
Cheers
Sahar