How important is the social side of watching TV to you? If very, then CBS thinks it has a solution to make Web video less of a lonely pastime.

One of the biggest problems with Web video is the solitary nature of it all. Watch a video on YouTube, Hulu, Joost and the rest and you’re likely to be alone in your home or office with no-one to share the experience with.

While that’s fine for some television programmes, others are clearly meant to be watched in groups, be it a family gathered around the telly, or a group of friends getting together for a few drinks and a bit of TV.

CBS Social Viewing Rooms

CBS Interactive thinks it has the answer: Social Viewing Rooms, which once launched are set to allow groups of people to watch shows on CBS.com together, even if they happen to be miles away from each other.

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Web video is growing at a phenomenal rate, but until television and media companies realise that the Web is global and allows people in all countries to watch their content, it surely can’t succeed.

Territorial Licensing

I’ve touched on this subject a couple of times before: when NBC Direct launched, only for US citizens; and when The Daily Show went online, only for US citizens. As a Brit, this is obviously a problem.

Territorial licensing has once again reared its ugly head by stopping me watching any of the new full-length shows or movies that YouTube has started offering.

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Entourage Synopsis

Entourage revolves around the life of Vincent Chase (Hollywoods’s latest A-list movie star) and Eric, Drama and Turtle- his childhood friends from Queens, New York. As Vince’s fame rises, the money the temptations that come along with it also rise.

Not only was the show co-created by Mark Wahlberg, but it is also executive-produced by him. Some of the plots supposedly derive from real-life experiences that happened to he and his friends as an up-and-coming actor.

Vince is played by Adrian Grenier (”The Devil Wears Prada”), Eric is played by Kevin Connolly (”Antwone Fisher,” “John Q”), and Turtle is played by Jerry Ferrara (”Grounded for Life”). Aside from the stong cast, almost each episode of Entourage guest stars a celebrity. You just never know when Jessica Alba or Kanye West might pop up.

Entourage first aired in July of 2004 on HBO and is currently on it’s 5th season.

• Watch Entourage on iTunes
• Search for Entourage Episodes
• Find Entourage Torrents
• See if you can stream this on Netflix

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As Apple adds more HD content to its iTunes Store line-up, questions are being asked over the quality of the content and the pricing structure.

High Definition Future

The world is shifting towards a high definition future, but that could be a problem for Web-based delivery systems due to the amount of data needed for content to display in HD.

Regardless of this, Apple is forging ahead with its plans to dominate the HD Web video world, and has just announced that all four major U.S. television networks are now offering prime time shows on iTunes.

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The new Joost is now live, and offers users the chance to watch content in their Web browser using Flash. But is the content ever going to be good enough for it to compete with Hulu?

We’ve been expecting this to happen for over a month now: Joost has become Web-based, eschewing the need for a plug-in to be downloaded. In fact, the plug-in option has been dropped altogether to keep things simple.

Long Overdue

This move was long overdue as viewers made it clear that they didn’t want to download anything or open up an application just to view the odd video. So more than a year after it was first suggested, Joost has dropped the plug-in.

Joost CEO Mike Volpi told NewTeeVee that the plug-in could come back in time if the need was justified. This would seem to be only necessary for streaming live events.

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Sling Media has finally launched its SlingCatcher set-top box. The question now is do we actually need another device of this type when Apple, Roku, LG, and Vudu already provide a range of alternatives?

Slingbox

Sling Media has long been a player in the world of Internet TV, but until now, that has been only via the Slingbox, a placeshifting device that allows you to stream cable TV to a PC or mobile device.

The Slingbox, originally introduced in 2005, was a simple yet brilliant product allowing you to broadcast your traditional television signal around your house via the Internet. Any Internet-enabled device could receive the signal, allowing you to watch TV on a number of devices.

SlingCatcher

With TVs not generally being Internet-enabled, the big-screen television in your bedroom or whatever wasn’t part of the deal. Until now.

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YouTube is evolving. It seems like not a day goes by when a new feature or revenue stream is added to the site. All of which is good for us, the viewers, but bad for the competition.

While YouTube has never really had a strong and comprehensive revenue model in place, it has always succeeded at one thing: drawing in the audience. Ask anyone about video on the Internet and you’ll only get one response.

YouTube Evolution

The last few months have seen post-roll adverts making their début, banner adverts on the YouTube homepage becoming standard, partnerships with various media companies, The ‘YouTube Screening Room’ being announced, and a whole host of other ventures.

The most recent was just a couple of days ago when YouTube started offering ‘Click To Buy’ affiliates on content such as music videos and clips of video games being played.

CBS Partnership

And now YouTube has done it again, this time partnering with CBS, a long-time channel owner on the site, to offer full-length episodes of various shows. This puts YouTube in direct competition with the likes of Hulu and Joost.

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