The Dulles Airport World Trade Center will be the first organization of its kind to establish an Internet-based television channel.
The World Trade Center Association is partnering with Internet broadcasting company TV Worldwide to start an entire television network devoted to world trade issues.
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The move is a joint venture, with the two groups sharing the costs and the revenue, which will come from sources such as advertising, TV Worldwide Chief Executive Dave Gardy said Thursday.
The Dulles station will focus on the Washington area with some programs on subjects like business and international culture, tourism and capital markets, said Michael Runde, president of the World Trade Center Dulles Airport.
The Dulles Airport World Trade Center eventually will reside at the One Loudoun mixed-use development currently under construction.
TV Worldwide does Internet-based television stations for industries and organizations such as the maritime industry and the National League of Cities, Gardy said. Each of those stations get about 1 million viewers a year, he said.
The company provides the technology, as well as the programming and writers.
“If you’re sick of watching YouTube, we’re kind of like Internet TV for smart people, with a number of niche and microniche channels,” Gardy said.
Marketing expert Denise Shiffman, author of “The Age of Engage: How the Live Web Has Reinvented Marketing and What You Should Do About It,” said the specialized nature of the television site might bring it an audience — as long as the content is entertaining, not boring.
“Niche is actually good,” Shiffman said. “The more focused the strategy, the more likely to draw an audience.”
The network eventually hopes to have channels for each of the more than 300 world trade centers, Runde said.
The Dulles channel debuted as a draft version Thursday and will formally start sometime in 2008, according to Runde.
The channel also will be shown at the center itself, and the organization is looking to partner with hotels and other venues to have it shown there, Runde said.
