The quality of video streaming on the web is improving on a weekly basis.  Watching the election results last night was almost like watching live TV.   A few glitches and halts, but on the whole I turned the TV off, yet I felt like I was watching it on my computer.  I bounced around between various network newscasts and found that it was easy to watch the election highlights on the net.  This morning I watched highlights of Tim Russert’s appearance on TODAY (they are getting better at the cross promotion stuff) and then listened to a series of stories about the flooding in Myamar/Burma.  The news business has been tinkering with their video models for years, but they are are finally getting it right as delivery becomes fast and seemless.  Also note the ads on the NBC site that run as pre-rolls to the actual news pieces.  The ad is actually a combination of a print ad (with a more info button) and a video commercial.  Quite a package for advertisers.

So what all of this tells us is that the newscast format is alive and well on the web, and that there is no reason that it cannot be applied to numerous storytelling applications for clients.    A newscast (or some version of it) doesn’t have to cost a lot, and it can stay on top of the changing communications and marketing needs of clients.   No pun intended, but this is a communications tsunami looming, and the sooner clients get on board, the more ahead of the curve they will find themselves.