The Los Angeles Times poses an intriguing question: for an industry that tends to measure success by the number of consumers it can persuade to buy its products, Hollywood hasn't yet
been able to define what constitutes a genuine hit for programming that is seen on the Web. Internet companies have invented "hit" applications--e-mail being the most notable--but
entertainment makers are still grappling with the newfangled business models made necessary by Web economics. First of all, Web audiences don't all congregate in front of their computer screens at the
same time; they consume content when they wish to consume it, and often they interact with the actual material. Furthermore, their numbers are, comparatively speaking, small, at least for any
specific program. The L.A. Times: "In January, ABC canceled its new sitcom ‘Emily's Reasons Why Not’ after a single episode because only 6.3 million viewers tuned in. But
Daniel Myrick--who produced the 1999 independent film ‘The Blair Witch Project’--says he would be thrilled if ‘The Strand,’ an online series he is developing, would attract
one-fortieth of those viewers. 'If we had 150,000 people,' says Myrick, "then we could continue making episodes forever.'" So, how to calculate what constitutes a winner on the
Web? The L.A. Times doesn't answer the question, but it asks the right ones.
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