Still, veterans of Hollywood and TV are flocking to the online world with promises of professionalism and innovation. Even in the tightly controlled quarters of MSN, a proprietary network that only runs on Windows 95 computers, you can't venture too far without running into an error message or a freeze. It involves a direct trade-off of user freedom for advertiser convenience. Familiar language takes the edge off the technology's daunting geekiness. The closer these companies stick to the TV model, the harder they will crash.
Nielsen numbers suggest that network TV viewership is declining while Internet use is growing.
But the Web has nothing to lose and everything to gain from the advent of consumer devices like WebTV, which take the Web as it already exists and simply pumps it right onto people's TV sets. Anyone creating for or trying to use today's Web can only be heartened to read this record of astonishing mishaps and bloopers, as TV's pioneers tried to move the new technology out of the shadow of its imposing big brothers, radio and movies. Lengthy film clips covered slow set changes. Sponsors' live spots would regularly go awry, like the demo of an automatic can-opener that not only failed to open the can but actually pulled a chunk of the set off the wall. With all of this, shows played only to numbers in the tens or hundreds, leaving advertisers and executives underwhelmed.