The Web continues to gain acceptance as a legitimate destination for watching television and video, with the American networks even beginning to climb on board to the possibilities.

Whether the content is original productions such as Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog from Buffy creator Joss Whedon, or repeats of old TV shows on services such as the BBC iPlayer or NBC’s Hulu, the popularity of the Web as a delivery method is forever growing.

Hulu Fall Première Line-Up

And now, NBC has confirmed its commitment to the cause of Web video by launching its Fall Première Lineup on Hulu which will see shows such as Heroes, House, and Prison Break available on Hulu.

But not only will the first episodes of these shows, along with Bones, The Office, and 30 Rock be available on Hulu, some shows will actually make their début online via the service a week before they première on cable TV.

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Google has been struggling to make any serious revenue from YouTube, but its new Google Video For Business could finally see video sharing proving profitable for the company.

Google Apps

Google Apps is a set of communication tools and applications such as Gmail, Google Talk, Google Docs that individuals and businesses can use for a range of uses.

There is a free version, with no APIs or customer support, and a business edition that costs $50 per user per year and enable a company to ensure all its employees can network using the same set of tools.

Google Video For Business

Google has just announced that the business edition is set to get video added to its list of applications via Google Video For Business.

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Hulu and YouTube are two of the biggest names in Web video, but while one is struggling to turn traffic in to revenue, the other is concentrating on levering its content to make money.

YouTube is the unrivalled leader of Web video, a least in terms of traffic and mainstream appeal.

It is likely to be the only video sharing site that the majority of the population has heard of.

Traffic and Revenue

But as we’ve discussed quite a few times here on Web TV Wire, traffic doesn’t always equal revenue, a fact that is surely sticking in Google’s throat after it paid $1.65 billion for YouTube.

Estimates are suggesting YouTube will make between $300 million and $500 million in revenue next year, which while impressive, isn’t much from the amount of people who visit the site.

In fact, when you consider that around 4.2 billion video are served up by YouTube in a typical month, it’s a pretty poor result.

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• Live Hurricane Gustav Web Cams
• Hurricane Gustav News Videos

Three years ago when Hurricane Katrina hit web video and live streaming was relatively unheard of. YouTube only launched in 2005 and slower internet speeds made live streaming more difficult.

Now when natural disasters strike web video is playing a more important role in spreading the latest up to date news and information to the public.

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