Teen TV
| 07:58 UK time, Tuesday, 16 January 2007
One reason I'll never get a big head just because I work for the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is that I have a teenager at home.
She hardly ever watches ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ television - it's music channels, Aussie soaps and repeats of makeover shows on cable for her.
As for radio, I don't think she really knows the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ does that.
What she does most of is sit in front of her computer listening to Napster and sending instant messages to her friends. And talking on the phone at the same time.
We've got software to keep her safe from the ill-intentioned so we feel relatively comfortable about this - it's not what we did as kids, but we probably would have done if we could.
Trying to break into the media world she and her teenage peers around the world have created is the task the creators of have set themselves.
These are the same guys who built KaZaA file sharing and Skype, the Internet phone system.
Now they want to provide TV shows and long video clips (not short YouTube exhibitionism) at high quality.
It's in beta testing now and here's one of the screenshots provided by Joost.
It looks like a TV programme with web pages all over it. It reminds me a bit of the films Pakistani minibus drivers show as they ply the roads, the screen plastered with crawling text sales messages.
Will it work and pull teens back to TV?
Well, if it doesn't, broadcasters who rely on advertising are in a bit of trouble because TV ads are losing their earning power.
Too easy for adults to zap through now they've learned how to operate their hard disk recorder.
Not reaching teens because "I'm on the phone!"
