Commentary

Veoh to Go

When channel surfing reveals the same old, same old, Dmitry Shapiro suggests upgrading to Television 2.0. That's this CEO's pet name for his beta baby, Veoh, an Internet television network to which film producers and broadcasters can upload fully featured, TV-quality shows gratis, at least for now. Viewers can download to their PC or iPod some of the 12,000 currently available videos, from "The Three Stooges" to "Iggy Cool and the Tentacles of Terror," about a crime-solving, surfing iguana.

San Diego-based Veoh Networks, which launched in 2004, expects to make money through ad sales and commissions on pay-to-download selections it will debut this month. Video publishers will have the option of allowing their shows to be downloaded for free or for a fee. If free, Veoh will insert ads before and after the programming.

Marketers can also purchase their own advertising for a special rate. This was a good option for advertisers like the Lego Group and Marvel, which co-sponsor a Spite Your Face Productions film short, "Spider-Man: The Peril of Doc Ock," which has a set and cast made entirely of Legos. "What we are doing for television is what the World Wide Web did for print," Shapiro says.

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