Joss Whedon’s Dr Horrible internet show got watched by a minimum of 2.2 million people in the five days it ran on the American iPlayer-ish Hulu service. For much of that time, the stream was locked to US-only computers. After that, you could only get it on iTunes for $3.99 a pop – and it sat at the top of the iTunes charts for some time. It didn’t go anywhere near a TV screen until the DVD release.

The inspiration for doing Dr Horrible as television-not-for-television was Felicia Day’s The Guild, a sitcom about online game-players, now shooting its fourth season. The first episode was “broadcast” by YouTube, where it has a current tally of over four million plays. Now you can find it on iTunes and Xbox Live.

There’s money out there. This was the same money given to Radiohead and Trent Reznor for music, to Wil Wheaton for e-books. People are more comfortable with buying or renting digital goods – and they’re certainly fine with streaming it for free and spending attention-economy currency on spreading the word and supporting the work.

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