The WB Network brand was once synonymous with a number of big TV shows, but after being abandoned two years ago, it disappeared overnight. Where to next? The Web of course, which offers a lifeline for networks not deemed fit for traditional television.

Warner Brothers announced in April that it would be bringing back formerly dead The WB Network TV brand. The ad supported video on demand venture would include two sites, TheWB.com and KidsWB.com.

From Beta To Public

TheWB.com then launched in private beta at the beginning of June. At the time, the site was said to be half-finished and containing only a few episodes of a few shows.

Now, two months later and a date has been set for a full public launch. Warner Bros. has until August 27th to iron out all of the original problems as that’s when we’ll all be able to visit the site and make our own minds up.

Big plans are rumoured to be afoot for the BBC’s online plans. Only a week after the new iPlayer 2.0 was unveiled in beta testing, there are new proposals being talked about that could change the nature of the service completely.

The BBC iPlayer is already a fantastic service available to everyone in the UK, allowing viewers to stream or download any BBC programmes from the last seven days.

The improved version of the iPlayer is already a big step up, integrating radio and television in to the one service, a larger playback window, and an automatic bookmarking feature.

Pre-Booking Function On Way

One of the other features, allowing you to view programmes coming up in the next three days forms the basis for the first of the new improvements. In my article about the iPlayer 2.0, I suggested this would lead to bigger things, and that is now happening.

Warner Bros. today announced two new websites, which will form part of its overall online strategy, and are also likely to increase interest in Web television as a serious alternative to traditional TV.

It will be bringing back the WB network TV brand, which existed as a female targeted television channel before being merged with Fox’s UPN Network, as an online destination at TheWB.com.

Ad Supported Video On Demand

This will be an ad supported video on demand venture which is hoped to become a viable location for new shows, which will be tested on the Web before possibly being given a network television slot.

When Mogulus launched properly last November after spending a few months in beta, it enabled anyone and everyone to become television channel owners, and broadcasters.

Amongst the features that Mogulus offered straight away were the ability to stream 24/7, and adding TV like special effects, and all this for free.

However, one thing which was missing was the ability to replay live broadcasts as and when you wanted, meaning if you weren’t online at the time of the streaming, then too bad.

The independent music website Pitchfork has today announced the launch of Pitchfork.tv, a new Web TV station which they hope will provide all of their readers with video content which is being ignored by other stations.

In their press release, they cite the fact that while high-profile mainstream artists have seen their coverage expanded exponentially, the same cannot be said of independent artists.

Enough Of A Fan Base?

While they have a point, there’s a reason for this lack of exposure, which is that indie artists don’t necessarily have the fan base out there to warrant the same kind of time on traditional or web based television as more established artists.

Which, if you’re about to launch a music station purely dedicated to these same independent artists, may prove to be a bit of a worry.

Let’s just suppose for a moment that you’re an Apple devotee.

There are millions of them out there, swayed by the design sensibilities, and maybe an anti-Microsoft bias.

You may be one of these people, or you may not be. But, just for kicks, let’s pretend there’s a bit of a love affair going on between you and Cupertino.

How then do you satiate your craving for Apple news? Presumably with a steady diet of blog posts, the produce of rumor mills, maybe even a subscription to a magazine or two. Yes? 

What About Video?

Okay, well, that’s good and fine, but what about the video angle? How do you get your fix of Mactastic product reviews, speculative talk, and general cultist junk in moving-picture form? Podcasts? YouTube clips?

What if you were to be given the option to watch an IPTV channel, active 24/7, that purported to provide nothing but Apple-centric foodstuffs? 

You might be eager to sign on to such an experiment, no? (Remember, we’re still pretending to harbor fanatical zeal for Steve Jobs & Co.) Lucky you, then, because someone’s gone and launched that very item.

Before we divulge the details, let’s do this right and coat this story with a bit of butta, shall we?

Mogulus, a New York based video start up company, has been running in private closed beta for over four months.

It has now finally been unveiled to the world, and mightily impressive it is too.

Mogulus used last week’s NewTeeVee Live conference as the place to launch, and used the platform to broadcast the whole conference as well, just to show off its capabilities.

A Micro TV Studio

We first took a look at Mogulus back in May, where we were amazed by the incredible options at your fingertips. Michael Pick even described it at the time as “a micro-TV studio packed into a web browser”.

In July we also ran an interview between Robin Good and Max Haot, the CEO of Mogulus, where we found out a bit about Haot himself, as well as some insights in to the company set up and aims.

So what has happened to the company and platform since then?