Last month it was Al Jazeera's English channel. This month it's Venezuelan TV channel Radio Caracas TV. The Internet is helping TV Channels overcome media censorship / distribution problems.

Al Jazeera's English channel was fighting an uphill battle to gain a distribution foothold in the U.S.A. because U.S. satellite broadcasters were reluctant to share their platform. (In fact, the poor response from major broadcasters like Direct TV & Echostar left Al Jazeera in a quandary about its future vis a vis the elite mass of English-speaking audience of North America!)

Finally, last month Al Jazeera decided to take the Internet Television route - by launching its channel on YouTube.com : the world's largest visited Video site.

This month Caracas (Venezeula) based private broadcaster Radio Caracas Television (RCT) was forced off the airwaves by the President because it violated national broadcasting laws. (Market information suggests that the reasons were more because RCT is aligned with the opposition party!)

RCT however, did not stop its news production activities. Instead it started uploading its news show titled "The Observer" as a feed on YouTube.com. And in the process, even became YouTube's most-subscribed feed of the week.

With these 2 examples of the Internet as via media for traditional media, we could well see more "threatened" channels take their content to the Web. And in the process, define yet another role for the Internet!

Ticket Reserve Online
TicketReserve.com is a U.S. based web-site which helps fans to reserve in advance tickets for regular (typically sports) events. (See box.) Prices are determined based on bids like traditional commodities exchanges which reults in a market based pricing.

With TicketReserve, fans can reserve the right to buy tickets for specified events. These include professional sports events like NFL (American Football), the Super Bowl, NBA (Basketball) and College sports. Vouchers purchased can be further bought & sold through the trading system, or converted to buy a face-value ticket if the event (sports game) takes place.

Of course there are bound to be problems. Like the fact that Ticket Reserve can have no control over refunds for event cancellations / reschedules. Just as it has no say vis a vis seat positions assigned for an event.

But all things considered, TicketReserve does seem to have a bright future - else why would CBS TV Network invest in this privately promoted venture?