Remember that rant I had last weekend about BudTV? Seems the channel is now close to succeeding in their mission to put off their audience.

According to AdAge the ridiculous sign-up process is being blamed for the online TV channel’s failure by Anheuser-Busch’s executives. The content on the site is slowly emigrating to other Anheuser-Busch sites and the visitor numbers for May were so low that Bud TV didn’t even register with Internet audience measuring company Comscore Media Metrix (which supposedly means that the number of visitors has fallen to under 100,000 in May). The end is very near.

So, what have we learned so far from this debacle?

Firstly, that a sign up process that is as complicated and prohibitive as the one on BudTV is definitely going to drive your traffic away. It certainly makes it near impossible to let the content become viral and fulfil it’s purpose as an instrument of branding.

Secondly, that even the people who did sign up to watch BudTV didn’t enjoy the shows as much as Anheuser-Busch would have liked. This is an old rule in traditional Television, which is just as valid in online TV: if people don’t like it, they’ll switch channels.
And thirdly, that in order to be successful in Social Networks you need be open and involve your users. The numbers for video streaming pioneer YouTube leave little to be said on this subject.

I’m sure as this story progresses we will learn more valuable lessons on “How not to make a $30 million dollar online TV channel”. Stay tuned. I feel a mini series coming on…