Here’s how I think of it: The Internet allows users to interact with video, thus giving them a sort of added value that traditional television hasn’t, so it stands to reason that online video should be able to generate a certain amount of profit that traditional television does not generate. Platforms that put video at the center of social networks, like http://www.fargotube.com (my employer), are especially promising because they allow users to interact with each other and with the characters in a show.

For example, it’s easy foresee online video helping to popularize a new genre where viewers watch an episode and then help decide what should happen in the next episode by e-mailing suggestions and/or by voting on two or more possibilities. Soap operas seem readily adaptable to this format. So do traditional sitcoms, although it might be necessary to break them into two or more shorter episodes every week. It would be kind of like traditional TV series crossed with comedy improv.

Most importantly, if well done, people will pay for that sort of content.