January can be a tough month can’t it? At the best of times temperatures fall, work mounts up, and those credit card bills come tumbling in.

But as we all know these aren’t the best of times are they? We’re now officially in recession and some forecasters think it could be the worst since the Second World War. And with our biggest banks reduced to penny shares these are economic times like no others.

And it’s hard to see a way out. Nobody knows how long or deep this recession is going to be. And one of the biggest casualties in times like these is confidence. And without momentum everything seems harder.

But there is a ray of hope and a lead from New President Barack Obama. A realisation of what needs to be done and the scale of the problem we face but also an unshakeable belief in our ability to get the job done.

And it’s the same for us here at WebsEdge. We started the year off in style in New York producing Historians TV, another great brand to add to our roster. And however tough 2009 and 2010 become we’re going to carry on producing great TV for our vertical audiences. I hope the President is proud of us!

“_____ with its penetration, its wide geographic distribution and impact, provides a new, direct and sensitive link.  The people have once more become the nation, as they have not been since the days when we were small enough each to know his elected representative. As we grew, we lost this feeling of direct contact – _____has now restored it.”

In both cases, the missing word in this quote is ‘television’; a medium that many believe once revolutionized the American electorate.

The quote is taken from a speech by Frank Stanton, president of CBS from 1946 to 1971. Stanton clearly saw TV as a way to transform people into witnesses, to inform the public, and to stimulate discussion and debate.

Here we are, just two months before an American presidential election, and once again TV continues to make its mark.  According to Nielson ratings, 38.9 million viewers tuned in to ‘traditional’ television for John McCain’s speech at the Republican National Convention; half a million more than the number of viewers that tuned in to hear Barack Obama’s.  But this is no longer the complete picture.

After every recent high-profile speech, whether it was Sarah Palin’s ‘do-or-die debut’, the nomination acceptances, or the unveiling of running mates, the volume of downloads of online videos, or IP television (IPTV) has soared.  McCain may have had more viewers sat in front of their television screens, but the democrats had more overall viewers.

According to online ranking specialists Visible Measures, 7.8 million Democratic National Convention online videos were viewed across 278 different video placements, compared to three million Republican National Convention video views online in 265 unique video placements.

Television, this time delivered and viewed across the internet as web-based TV or IPTV, is yet again proving to be a major driving force for political communication between candidates and for the national nominating conventions. There is also a very interesting slant here in terms of the different numbers between democrats and republicans, which could either reflect campaign tactics or the demographics of each group.

Web-based TV simply enables messages to be transmitted, allowing empathy to be established with large audience, and encouraging viewers to get interactive by joining discussions, posting content, or even emailing their own videos. The “feeling of direct contact” that Frank Stanton mentioned in his speech has seamlessly developed into a two-way street thanks to web-based TV. Viewers no longer have to get to know the candidates passively; they now get to have their say, if they choose to.

I think Frank Stanton would be pleased.

How often have you heard the phrase ‘content is king’? That may be so but don’t you just get the feeling that there’s too much choice out there. You may be able to record programmes at will but there often isn’t the time to watch them all back. And even user-generated content loses its appeal when it’s been sat on the shelf for a while.

Now don’t get me wrong. Here at WebsEdge we’re duly proud of all the programming we make. But in my view we’re all making it hard work for consumers to find what they want to watch when they want it.

Yesterday, I came across this recent NewTeeVee post which cites data from an online survey covering the general public’s views on IPTV. NewTeeVee summarizes the data suggesting that people access online video content in numerous ways, but none of which are quite satisfactory.

Viewers are looking for videos they’ll enjoy; content that is relevant and suited to their specific interests. Unfortunately, users are not yet satisfied with the ability to find the specific content they want.

The survey results show over half (56%) of online viewers find their videos by browsing sites, while around 1/3 find them through search engines. Although NewTeeVee seemed surprised by this difference, to me it makes sense. IPTV has begun its evolution, but the viewers aren’t yet ready to change their habits.

The ability to search for videos is something that viewers have never had in a conventional television environment. Browsing websites is basically the online equivalent of channel surfing. There has never been a way to sit on the couch and search for your interests and now that this exists online, people are having trouble adapting.

Part of IPTV’s innovation will be not only the evolution of the way people watch TV, but the way the find their programmes. For IPTV to blossom, viewers’ habits will begin to evolve as well, enabling a more fully functional spectrum of television.

Why WebsEdge?

I have to come clean here. It took us almost a couple of years to come up with this name. We’d been making television programmes for specific groups of companies and organisations for almost five years and knew we had to re-brand our company. But even with brainstorm after brainstorm we just couldn’t get it right.

Are we just slow? No on reflection I think it’s because we’re seeing a greater transformation in the television industry than we’ve ever seen before. So much so that it’s almost impossible to draw a line in the sand and say this is where we currently stand. It can sometimes be hard to get past all the hype that’s around but the changes are there for all to see. And it’s not just the technology that’s changed - whole business models have gone clean out the window as well.

We’ve all seen rapid shifts before in this industry but this time it’s different. It’s the consumers - not the broadcasters - driving the change. It’s the consumer who decides when and where they want to watch content and it’s the viewer who says what they want to see. And more and more frequently now the viewer themselves actually wants an input into that content.

And whether we like it or not in the television business it is the Internet which is at the centre of all this. Yes, many people like to watch programmes on a television set - often the bigger the better. And yes IPTV through set top boxes has yet to take off either here or in the United States. But viewing habits have changed with significant numbers of younger people preferring to watch video content online.

So here at WebsEdge we’re going to try and keep on top of all this change and have fun doing so! And we’ll do our best to bring you along for the ride.