As some of you may know, if not already know, Soap Opreas are fading away from TV. But I do not believe that the demand has gone forevery. The main problem that network executives have had is the bad economy and the loss of green. Money is tight and unfortunately cuts had to be made. Stories like AMC or All My Children are going off the air if not already.

So what’s going to happen next? Well, some producers and actors have already begone the next chapter in Soap Opera history by turning their efforts to producing programs for online entertainment. Instead of 1 hour shows with ads running through them, they now are making small snippet shows which run 5-10 minutes a piece without commercial interruptions. This is great news for fans of the genre. In fact there is money to be made on the internet and what a great way to gain fans from not only the country you are gearing your shows to, but to the international market as well.

Television has a major limit. When a show is placed on a network it is limited to how many times it is played when it can be played and what channel it can be played on. It is also pitted against other shows on the same time slot. However, with the internet, unless you want to set a limit on what region of the world a video can be seen (and why you would do that!), you can upload a video to the internet and every person with access to the internet regardless of where they live in the world, will have the option of watching that video and can play it whenever, wherever and however they want! Thus, with each click money can be surly made. Want proof, look at some of the partners of YouTube, you can have a job just posting video online.

Anyone and everyone can now make a movie or a TV series without having to take the time to pitch an idea to a board of directors. They don’t have to raise God knows how much money to get a show aired for millions to see. All it takes is a video camcorder, some actors, editing software, your imagination and the internet. Heck if you don’t know how to go about setting up a scene for filming there are tutorials all over YouTube. There are also tutorials on special effects (SFX) like Video Co-Pilot that teachs you some of the latest and most current effects out on the market.

My point is that the internet is an untapped gold mind for the soap opera industry, but like everything else in life the down side to this great opportunity is that again anyone and everyone can now make a movie or sitcom.Yikes!

But regardless of how you feel, I am excited on the future of the entertainment industry as a whole. Even right now, network websites are uploading episodes in full for streaming and are making interesting  and creative ads in the form of tv pilots to peak the interest of perspective viewers. In the end, this will only be the beginning of great things to come and I can’t wait to see what’s next for Online media.

Reference:

http://www.reelseo.com/soap-inspired-online-video-web-series/