• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, January 3, 2006

This week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Yahoo! chief Terry Semel is expected to talk about the company's plans for video programming. While the details of his speech haven't been revealed, it's probably safe to assume he'll be touting Yahoo!'s new online reality show "Wow House"--news of which was first reported by OnlineMediaDaily on Dec. 14.

"Wow House," in the home makeover show mold, follows two families as they renovate and upgrade their home electronics. Each household is given $10,000 with which to purchase new theater systems and the like, but only one family can keep the new equipment. Viewers will vote on which home gets to retain the merchandise.

But if Semel hopes to demonstrate that Yahoo! hovers on the cusp of becoming a TV-like network, he has his work cut out for him. While TV content has increasingly moved online in the last year, Internet companies are still struggling to create original programs.

Consider that in the last 12 months, streams of shows ranging from "Fat Actress" to "Supernatural" to "Everybody Hates Chris," to "Meet the Press" have appeared online. Videos of live events, such as "Live 8" or the NASA Space Shuttle launch, have also streamed on the Web.

But new programs, professionally created and developed for the Internet, remain rare. So far, AOL has made inroads with its reality show "The Biz," but much of its content is more in the nature of very short infotainment segments, like three-minute music videos shot at its studio.

Yahoo! also has taken some stabs at original content, with its foreign affairs program "Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone," and travel show "Richard Bangs Adventures."

But advertisers don't appear to be interested in "Hot Zone," and the Bangs site has generated little buzz.

Of course, one reason appears to be that technology hasn't yet caught up to these initiatives. Many people still lack broadband and, even with high-speed connections, video streams still aren't as sharp as on TV.

And, unlike the early days of television--when consumers put up with black and white shows that required antennas for reception--people now have the option to see crystal-clear programs through their TV sets and DVD players. Chances are, they're not going to turn to the Web for original shows unless the programs are extraordinary--or unavailable anywhere else.

Which is why Yahoo! might have to come up with something more unique than "Wow House" to really wow consumers into watching TV on the Internet.