New media

So have you been to Homestarrunner.com? It's pretty hilarious. I like how Flash animation has really opened the field to people interested in animation, with a fraction of the cost involved. If I recall correctly, after The Critic was canceled, they produced a series of shorts with Flash that went up on one of the short film sites, maybe ifilm.com. I've been reading quite a bit lately about "Rolling Your Own Network", and how BitTorrent has made it possible to distribute television programming over the internet with very little cost, if the programming's good enough. It seems possible, but I'm also skeptical as to how such shows would get an audience in the first place. Would there be advertising involved, or just word of mouth? Somebody suggested this concept would only work with a consistent supply of new episodes for popular shows. The first thing that came to mind for me was cable access. There you have a huge backlog of product to draw on, if you contacted the creators of the shows and cut them in on the money. But how would you pay for it? Someone suggested product placement in place of the skippable ads. I think this is becoming not only more prevalent, but also more accepted by audiences, so this could work. The biggest problem may be the legal hurdles file-sharing programs still face, one case where government regulation may still be stifling new innovation, as opposed to the absence of it encouraging consolidation.