Having watched several student presentations of the types of online videos they enjoy, I feel that my understanding of the platform has increased somewhat. Several webseries helped bring attention to the differences between TV and online in a serial sense. Factors that come into play here include duration and budget, as online series tend to have far lower budget, but at the same time have a much greater deal of time restrictions due to the broadcast system.
Another aspect of these series’ was the important role that personality played. Both Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and The Katering Show featured hosts with a strong comedic side to their personality, which is clearly relied heavily upon. This idea of personality is mainly important in the growing of an audience who will continue to watch the videos as they come out, rather than a ‘one off’ type viewing.
Another form of video that was presented multiple times was advertising. It was demonstrated that these ads can be information based, like a tutorial, or it might be aimed more at entertainment, in the hope of going viral. What proved to be the difference between these ads and those on TV was the ability for audiences to more readily interact, which is clearly an extremely vital part of online video.