As the entertainment industries around the world try and stamp out P2P networks from disseminating content freely, there are those who willingly create free material for mass distribution.
Note: This is an article I wrote that was published elsewhere first. It has been republished here for archival purposes
It’s not just independent content creators that are doing this anymore; Global TV has just started releasing their content via podcast.
There was a time when skeptics called the internet a ‘fad’ and would eventually just ‘go away’ and go the way of the Pog. These skeptics were proven wrong when it simply stuck around and a growing number of users logged in to check e-mail via newsgroups on their 28.8k modems.
Then with 56k modems and eventually broadband, Internet users were able to do much more then simply check their electronic mail.
With the growing availability of 56k modems and broadband, free content began circulating throughout file-sharing networks. Records labels since then have been trying to rub this out of the history books – with little success. Where old business models started to fail, new business models are now taking their place. For a number of years, free content started rooting themselves on the information highway in however small a forum. Home Star Runner was definitely one of the better known free entertainment shows that aren’t associated with podcasting, but podcasting started to take shape just after the turn of the century – and recently has been ballooning in size.
Arguably, it could have been a sign of the times when TV stations started using web pages to help advertise their content. Today, it might be a sign of the times now that TV stations are also giving away content for free online. Global National, another Canadian TV station, decided to join the herd of podcasters by offering their news for free online via podcast.
This marks the 5th Canadian station to offer full segments for free on the internet. CPAC offers two whole podcasts that enables Canadians to listen in on the Senate and the House of Commons. CBC offers a number of their comedy hit shows online in full. CTV NewsNet offers their news content online in streaming content. Discovery Channel is the other Canadian channel that does this, offering shows like ‘Daily Planet’ ready to stream for anyone. Although Comedy Central offers some content for free, it’s only small clips.
Since the 12th (at least according to their RSS feed) Global Media TV has been offering segments of their news cast via podcast. For anyone who wants to listen in, their podcast is just a click away.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
