While most proponents of media convergence trumpet the near future when the Internet comes to your tv, one Toronto-based Webco is jumping the gun by putting dozens of specialty channels online for your pc.

tvradio.com, which launched Jan. 26 at natpe in New Orleans, is a Web-based service offering an array of niche programming via the Web, including cooking, health, comedy and even nudity lifestyle, all streamed in broadcast-quality video.

‘It’s specialty programming that has lower costs related to it,’ says Chris Meraw, chairman and ceo of Virtual Broadcast Corp., parent company of tvradio. ‘But, of course, we are still striving for the same broadcast tv-quality production values.’

Meraw calls the kinds of programming offered on tvradio ‘sif’ (Short Internet Format), segments which range from one to 10 minutes. These programs, he says, are packaged to offer very specific – and hopefully entertaining – information to viewers, whether it be cooking tips or natural remedies.

With sif programming, he says, ‘I don’t need to watch a whole half-hour program to get that one little piece of information that I need.’

This, he adds, separates tvradio from most other players providing broadcast programming online. ‘We are clearly one of the only companies focusing on what we call the ‘infotainment’ sector,’ he says. ‘Most of the virtual and digital networks that are going to be coming online in the future are probably going to have more of an entertainment spin to them.’

Meraw, whose background is in investment banking and corporate finance, says the company plans to have 40 unique networks up and running within 12 months. There are currently 13 available.

Revenue is generated through banner advertising, while access is free to the public. But advertising revenue is just enough to cover the costs of programming, a scenario Meraw calls the company’s ‘survival model.’ Profits, he predicts, will come through e-commerce, with an e-shop set up for each individual network.

The company’s business model also allows for additional revenue to be generated through the packaging of a series of sif segments from any of its networks into programs for sale to traditional cable specialty channels. ‘If we’ve got 10 three-minute pieces on cigars with our cigar expert on the Men’s Network, we can put that back together and put it out onto the Discovery Channel, or something like that.

‘All the content we’re making is good for the Internet and works, but it is broadcast quality and we do expect to license, or see it migrate out to cable, or out to a tv network, or direct-broadcast satellite.’

tvradio’s range of interest-focused content will also position vbc to challenge traditional specialty channels once convergence does occur, Meraw says. ‘All of our content, all of our specialty networks, will migrate to the big screen in your family room, when the Internet-ready tvs and the digital set-top boxes are deployed en masse over the next 12 to 24 months,’ he says. ‘Which means we are potentially your whole cable dial.’

Amazingly, the entire project cost vbc, which will be going public within the year, less than $1 million, Meraw says. This, he adds, is unheard of for a website providing the depth of content found at tvradio.

Programs are either produced internally or by outside producers, and viewers are also encouraged to submit creative ideas or self-produced content.

‘Our aim, our objective, our business model is to produce and acquire,’ says director of marketing Zenobia Siddiqui. ‘In some cases our strategic partners may already have things created, which we then format for our one- to 10-minute programs.’

Such was the case with vbc’s Naturisttv, a nudist/travel network which was created in partnership with the Federation of Canadian Naturists.

‘We wanted to see if they had any video material that we could put on our TVLife Network,’ he says. ‘And they said, ‘Oh, we’ve got hours and hours of video here.’ So we turned around and booked Naturisttv and created a breakout specialty network.’ And because they broadcast over the Web, creating a new network was relatively simple, he adds.

Each network can be accessed through its own Web address and browsed on a non-scrolling, nine-frame interface where you never leave the home page, which features a range of videoclips and very little text. Besides having its own e-shop, each network provides a chat room, trivia and viewer polls.

tvradio can be accessed either on low or high bandwidth. Programs can be accessed either through a Windows Media Player or an Apple QuickTime 4 Player.