The recent headline in the Independent was enough to make any station exec throw up their TV dinner.  It seemed straightforward enough, “Google’s UK advertising revenues to surpass Channel 4’s”, but what seems a simple statement carries enormous implications for the broadcast industry. 

Traditional free-to-air TV is now undergoing a systematic attack that has had more than a few commentators ask a priest to carry out the last rites.  Nick Waters, European Chief of media agency Mindshare, added his own not-insignificant tuppence worth to Channel 4’s disclosure and said that ‘there is a danger free-to-air broadcasters will get caught in a death spiral”. 

Whilst it’s too early for a funeral march, it’s clear that Joe Public is spending more leisure…

As everyone grapples with Web 2.0, mobile marketing/J2ME, blogging and user-generated content along with a host of other new digital applications, sneaking up almost unnoticed is the next new phenomenon, virtual worlds.

Virtual worlds are websites where people, in the form of avatars, live much like they do in the real world. They socialise, build homes, buy clothes and possessions but without the restrictions of a physical body or gravity. Many digital consumers are now spending hours upon hours in what is a ring fenced synthetic world.

Figures for the phenomenon are breathtaking. Second Life, which along with There.com and Warcraft is one of the leading virtual worlds, boasts one million signed up members with thousands online at any one…