Join the Hollywood filtration system

Many of the Web's short film sites fancy themselves as talent scouts. Make your site a destination for people looking to get discovered, as iFilm.com has done. Agencies will answer your calls and you can broker deals with the content creators.

NBC will no longer own Thursday nights

Remember the time when you knew the entire prime-time lineup? That was easy when there were only three channels. Try pulling that trick off today, with more than 100 channels. And do you remember the old Thursday nights, when no matter what crap NBC forced upon you at 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., you'd simply watch it because Seinfeld was on at 8 p.m. and Frasier was on at 9 p.m.? Those days will soon be over. Instead of corralling viewers by time of day, digital entertainment lets you acquire viewers by taste.

For example, while you watch an episode of Seinfeld, a button would appear on-screen, suggesting you might also like Frasier. It's possible, with digital video recorders like Tivo and ReplayTV. History has shown that even with a solid fan base, TV programs often die when they're moved to a different time slot. By switching to a programming model that's independent of fixed times, the problem's solved. It's a win for programmers and consumers. You don't need to know when your favorite shows are on, you just need to know what your favorite shows are — and everyone knows that.

As for what Web programming will work, well, that's anybody's guess.