Katie Couric Streams Live

Joseph Laszlo | August 18, 2006, 03:56 PM

Another day, another barrier falls along the contested border between TV and the internets. Starting with the eagerly anticipated debut of Katie Couric on 5 September, CBS is going to simulcast the evening news online as it's broadcast.

This is a first, and an interesting one. I imagine Katie's debut will crash the Web...it's classic Event Television. But as things settle down and become routine, I'm not sure how big an audience this is likely to attract. There are so many faster ways to get the news online than sitting through 30 minutes of old-fashioned broadcast. And yet, it's perfectly possible people stuck in the office during the normal broadcast timeslot might like the news running in the background on their PCs.

In an appeasing gesture to the affiliates, viewers will have to register to make sure they won't be able to see the broadcast until it's been on the air in their timezone. Will be interesting to see if they try to use some sort of geotargeting tech to ensure this, or if, as a New Yorker, I get to see the New York broadcast even when I'm in SF.

I've been so opposed to "convergence" for so long that now that it's sneaking up on me I don't know quite what to do about it. I still think this is totally about only those people who don't have TV access when the news is on; if you can watch video on a TV, the experience is worlds better than on a PC.

Yet we have evidence that for a segment of the online video audience, that distinction is blurry. Jup clients should watch out for a report I wrote, coming in the next couple of weeks from our TV and Filmed Entertainment service.