Wi-FiTV is a directory of Internet TV stations that also offers some sort of platform for creating your own Internet TV Station. The company appears to be promoting some sort of borderline MLM scheme to promote its TV platform, while also stating its very poor TV directory will have better social capabilities than YouTube and Myspace.
The Wi-FiTV chairman, Alex Kanakaris, insults MySpace and YouTube calling them "DeadSpace" and "WhatTube". What a clever guy!
Unless you’ve been living with some millipedes under a rock then you will have noticed that the large amount of Internet TV channel directory sites appearing around the internet. These websites list a large number of already existing internet TV channels available to watch.
One such website is Wi-FiTV which has recently released a press release stating it is:
The first live TV with a live chat box for members to discuss programs they are watching
The first free online video parties for members in up to 25 different locations
The first live TV channels placed in Country and Category pages with live breaking news and weather
The first social networking web site with free phone calls to and from members anywhere in the world
The first online TV channels for sale on a national level
Visiting Wi-FiTV you will probably be thinking it is not the best site in the world with a poor design which makes it hard to navigate or look through the channels. You will probably also be annoyed that you have to sign up to watch the channels whereas anywhere else you do not have to do this.
you have to sign up to watch the channels
When you do get to watch a channel you may be further annoyed by the lack of control you have over playing each channel, no pause, rewind, or stop controls without left clicking the screen, a novice user might not realize to do this.
That aside Wi-Fi TV’s press release made it sound like it was doing some very interesting and unique things. The founder and CEO Alex Kanakaris can be seen in this video describing the changes.
Analysis of Wi-FiTV’s new offerings:
The first live TV with a live chat box for members to discuss programs they are watching
This is pretty cool, being able to chat to people while watching TV is a great idea and as far as I know Wi-FiTV is the first to do it with these sorts of internet channels. YouTube however has recently rolled out public testing of the same thing but for video clips. Of course anyone who has friends doesn’t need this sort of thing.
Unfortunately it is not implemented in a clever way and is simply a chat box underneath the channel, with no-one in the chat room. There are no social networking features for making friends or anything like that.
Wi-FiTV - The first free online video parties for members in up to 25 different locations?
I’m assuming this is video conferencing and I don’t think Wi-FiTV is the first to do this. It’s kind of unrelated to internet TV anyway and can be done with vSkype and other software anyway.
Wi-FiTV - The first live TV channels placed in Country and Category pages with live breaking news and weather?
All WiFiTV has done is put news and weather feeds next to a category list. This hardly warrants mention in a press release. Any respect for this company is instantly lost.
Any respect for this company is instantly lost.
Wi-FiTV - The first social networking web site with free phone calls to and from members anywhere in the world?
A social networking website? I wouldn’t really call Wi-FiTV a social networking site just because you can text-chat to other members while watching TV. It lacks a lot of functionality you’d expect from sites like MySpace, Digg or YouTube.
Free Phone Calls: When it comes to offering free phone calls it’s a separate service which from what I can see is not integrated with Wi-FiTV at all other than being branded VoIP software. It actually looks like its run through another company called adcalls.
Either way what the hell has making phone calls for free got to do with TV in this situation.
Wi-FiTV - The first online TV channels for sale on a national level?
Ummm can’t I produce TV channels with many other companies and have them broadcasted worldwide. Has this company heard of BrightCove or NarrowStep? Wi-FiTV are just making things up and lying.
Wi-FiTV are just making things up
How arrogant is Wi-FiTV?
To answer this question here is a quick word from the Wi-FiTV Chairman Alex Kanakaris.
"MySpace may be dead space and YouTube may be What Tube by the time our brand of Social Internet TV(TM) is fully implemented".
Well it’s a little childish to be calling potential competitors names. MySpace = Dead Space! YouTube = What Tube! How can a CEO who addresses the competition which is worth billions of pounds be taken seriously.
Is Wi-FiTV part of an MLM Scheme?
When searching Google for some information on Wi-FiTV I found an interesting forum post that was asking people to sell Wi-FiTV channels to other people and earn commission. From the information on the website it smells a bit like a borderline MLM scheme to me, although it probably fits as legal.
Here is a quote from the forum. "Once you sponsor a sales rep, and they go out and sell a TV channel for $25,000, your rep will make a $5000 commission (paid weekly) and you will make a $2500 override for sponsoring that sales rep (paid weekly). You only get paid for PERSONALLY SPONSORED sales reps. This is not MLM. "
What is really interesting is that in another forum post it was asking for actual MLM marketers to buy a channel, saying that they needed an additional outlet for their sale pitch.
"Who wants to buy a Wi-FiTV channel? Are you currently working in an MLM orgainzation? Let me open your mind. Any MLM organization NEEDS to get their message out! What better way could their possibly be to do that than having your organization with it’s own TV channel on Wi-FiTV!"
Conclusion
Wi-FiTV is really pretending to be something it isn’t. It’s not a social networking site it’s just a simple aggregator of pre-existing internet TV channels with a very simple text chat underneath each channel and a separate VoIP service.
Combine this with the fact that the company is possibly involved in an borderline MLM scheme selling the technology for an internet TV station at inflated prices then this is a company I’d recommend staying away from
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