Content creators and distribution platforms Machinima, Blip, Crackle and Roku are proven disrupters in the entertainment and digital space. But while they each offer popular programming to screens around the world, the real question, as posed by the session moderator Lori Schwartz, Governor of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Interactive Media Peer Group and principal of World of Schwartz, was: “Do you consider yourselves TV?”

According to Rick Rey, VP of original programming and development at Blip, “It’s about the death of our old definition of TV rather than the death of television.” Blip.tv considers itself a destination for high-quality web series as well as a discovery site where audiences can find content tailored to them.

And as the marketing world’s definition of TV changes and expands, so does the landscape in which audiences find content. As many have noted last week at The Conference, people are more often watching shows, not networks. They’re watching characters, not channels. So according to the panel at the session, “The Disrupters: The New Golden Age of Television,” it’s about creating that branded space where a niche audience can call home.

Brands like the ones represented in this panel wouldn’t have had a chance to create or distribute TV content like they do in the television business model of 10 years ago.

“The current TV model is adapting,” said Aaron DeBevoise, EVP of network programming at Machinima. “But so many players in this space will be a part of that, where awhile ago, a grassroots effort like ours would have no place in it.”

Machinima, one of today’s top online brands for young men and fanboys, has created one of the ultimate places for not only TV content but video and gaming content as well, cementing themselves as a coveted online destination.

DeBevoise added that companies like these are also changing the meaning of “primetime” TV – online viewers can watch their primetime content at 2:00 a.m. and play games at 8:00 p.m., as sites like Machinima are not restricted to a linear schedule.

When it comes to the merging of TV and online brands, they agree that both sides want similar things. “You’re starting to see more TV money coming into the space, according to Eric Berger, EVP of digital networks at Sony Pictures Television and GM of Crackle. “They want connectivity, they want interactivity, and third party measurements.”

So, yes, the online environment is still looking for that perfect measurement like its network counterparts. But as TV and online continue to disrupt the current system, the prevailing thought is that those, too, will merge.

Crackle’s “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld” is an example of how brand integrations can work online and has become one of the most popular weekly episodic series for an online destination.

And Jim Funk, SVP of product management for Roku, a set-top box streaming player with more than 5 million users worldwide, added that “This section of the industry is now mainstream. This is not early adopters anymore.” So the disrupters are taking over, and it’s up to the upfronts and the Newfronts to take a look at how to best combine efforts for the next stage of TV.

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