You also see retailers like Eddie Bauer using tools imported from the entertainment industry - set design, mood, and music to enhance the shopping experience. In the same way, we use qualities of entertainment and storytelling to enhance the online experience. Most of the traffic at AOL is in chat rooms, not content sites. Content gives chat context. Without it, people in chat rooms quickly digress into the most base conversations.
Programming facilitates the interactions between people.
What they're doing at Moms Online, for instance, elevates chat to the level of meaningful content. Talk shows, game shows, news. Interactive Jay Leno with the studio audience at home. Alex Trebek and 25,000 people playing Jeopardy from home. TV news is dying for interactivity.