An interesting article from the New York Times about how television networks are being formed online, bypassing cable altogether. One network in particular, Trio TV used to be carried on DirecTV but lost their spot. So they relanuched the channel on the Internet.

An Excerpt…

“In 2004, Wired magazine popularized the phrase “the long tail” to refer to the large number of specialized offerings that in themselves appeal to a small number of people, but cumulatively represent a large market that can be easily aggregated on the Internet. Plotted on a graph along with best sellers, these specialized products trail off like a long tail that never reaches zero.

Indeed, the Internet’s ability to offer an almost infinite selection is part of what makes it so appealing: people can find things that don’t sell well enough to warrant shelf space in a neighborhood music store or video rental shop — think of the obscure books on Amazon.com. The ease of digital video production and the ubiquity of high-speed Internet connections are sending the long tail of video into the living rooms of the world, live and in color.”

Here’s the Slashdot post with links to the article.