Huffington Post Begins an Online TV Channel

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Huffington Post Begins an Online TV Channel

By BRIAN STELTER

The Huffington Post on Monday began what it hopes will be a never-ending news talk show on the Internet, HuffPost Live.

The online channel is one of the most ambitious attempts yet to rethink what television should look and feel like when streamed over the Internet. Accordingly, a chat box took up the same amount of space as the live video, and a bright red button labeled "join this segment" let viewers sign up to participate through their own webcams.

The segments themselves, at least initially, did not stray much from a TV script. The first hour, from 10 to 11 a.m. Eastern time, was dominated by talk about the presidential race and about the actress Jennifer Aniston's engagement to the actor Justin Theroux. But the people talking were a mixture of paid hosts and unpaid viewers at home. "Continue commenting!" a host encouraged chatters at the end of the first hour. "We love it, love it, love it."

The channel will have 12 hours of programming on weekdays, and the effort reflects a serious push within the media industry to produce the kind of online video advertisers are requesting. Cadillac and Verizon are the two advertisers The Huffington Post calls "founding partners" of the network.

"Now that almost everyone in the country is watching online video, it just makes sense that some people would want live programming, too," said Mike Vorhaus, a digital media analyst who heads Magid Advisors. "Of course, with the Web, it will be recorded and replayed forever."

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