Yahoo!'s decision to cancel Richard Bangs Adventures (MediaPost) is interesting, not (I believe) because it shows that Yahoo! can't succeed in producing original TV programming but because it shows that Yahoo! doesn't have to.
A TV station is defined by its format and its output - a TV channel only really exists if it is putting out TV shows so every second of every day has to be filled with something that is recognisable as TV. Partly this is user expectations, partly commitments to advertisers, partly opportunity cost. But Yahoo! operates under no such constraints - it is setting itself up as a distribution platform for media content in every format and can commission, syndicate or drop TV shows according to popular and commercial viability.
Put it another way - there's still a Yahoo! there when no-one is watching Yahoo! TV, and if and when some good TV is available there people will find it and watch it in their own good time.
Yahoo! can host ten minutes or ten years of programming. That's so much more efficient a market than a channel that must necessarily put out one day of programming per day that this hiatus in Yahoo!'s production schedule can really be nothing more than a blip.
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