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In the progressive digital age, we as consumers find ourselves more and more gaining a greater control over content we immerse ourselves within. As exemplified by Times Person Of The Year 2006, the “World Wide Web became a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter” (Time.com, Dec. 2006).

Within the last decade the Internet has emerged as a key platform for individuals wishing to get their work out into the public sphere through the use of Online Distribution.
Online Distribution can be defined as the sharing of media content such as photographs, articles or videos through an online environment. The major difference between online distribution as opposed to broadcast distribution, is that it puts the power of consumption entirely in the audiences hands, giving them free reign on what they watch, how they watch it and most importantly, when.

The emergence of this method of sharing media has offered an oppositional to television networks scheduling, allowing audience members to fit programing around themselves rather than scheduling themselves around television programming.
Individuals who once were without a platform for their creativity, now through the influx of online video sharing have exploded onto the scene (Xia, Mu et al. 2009).
Through this we see online shows emerge like The Big Lez Show, an Australian cartoon Youtube series, created by Jarrad Wright, Izak Whear and Tom Hollis, from Australian coastal town Tweed Heads.
Quickly, something which started as an inside joke between friends, The Big Lez Show grew into an ongoing web series viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, not only across Australia but the globe.
The The Big Lez Show, showcases crude Australian humour through online distribution. The web-series, which started in 2012, subsequently attracted the official channel 253 thousand subscribers, while racking up 19 million views to date.

The show appeals to a niche audience within the online sphere, and through it being distributed online, its accessibility enables it to be viewed at the audience’s discretion. The minimalistic animation, combined with in your face humour fuels the success of the show, all added to by the flexibility of the platform, which it is viewed upon.
Online Distribution has changed dramatically across the course of the Internets development, and is in a continual state of change and growth, from allowing people starting out an opportunity to showcase their work, through to the emergence of Netflix, and on-demand elements to television channels websites. The Internet is continuing to change the way audiences are able to view programs, providing a diversity of shows to watch, and allowing the shows to cater around the individuals own life.
Online distribution plays an important role in allowing shows such as The Big Lez Show to be seen, where in the absence of Youtube they would not, it gives way to opportunity on both the creative and receiving ends of media, allowing a bridge in the gap between the audience and the creators.

Reference:
TIME.com,. ‘You Yes, You Are TIME’s Person Of The Year’. N.p., 2006. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.
Xia, Mu et al. ‘Ballot Box Communication In Online Communities’. Communications of the ACM 52.9 (2009): 138. Web.

YouTube,’THE BIG LEZ SHOW OFFICIAL’. N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.

 

YouTube,’The Big Lez Doco’. N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.