Internet TV company ManiaTV has shut down after failing to find a buyer.

The company, founded in 2004 was one of the early attempts to take online live streaming television to a mass audience. The service though failed to catch on, not helped by regular changes in format, from user generate content into edgy 18-30 programming among other attempts.

In recent times it moved toward more of a Revision 3 style production house, offering shows on demand.

Ultimately though it was a failure of distribution that was always going to doom ManiaTV from near the start. They were ahead of the market when it came to live streaming television at a time that video podcasting (and podcasting full stop) was in its infancy, but failed to not so much as build an audience alone, but gain access to a potential audience.

Rocketboom was (and perhaps still is) the leader in distribution in the online produced video space. Andrew Baron built distribution networks where none existed before, generating an unprecedented at the time level of access to the show, which was key to its success. ManiaTV on the other hand didn’t work on access, and while you could view it on a computer, or via a plugin if you had a Windows Media Center Box attached to you TV, it rarely, if ever appeared as an option in the early or even later wave of internet to television devices. Even computer focused media software (Miro comes to mind) ignored live online TV in favor of podcasts, where as ManiaTV could have, and should have been working toward access (note, Miro only recently added live streaming).

Before their time perhaps, but now ManiaTV joins the dodos.

(in part via NewTeeVee)