Internet TV will it be a true competitor to Cable

Video over Internet is getting popular as seen by the time the younger demo are spending on YouTube's of the world. The time and unique users watching video on PC is ever increasing. We are even seeing an increase with mobile video viewing. However the form factors provided by TV and mobile have limitations, in the end the consumer would like some of this content to become available on TV. 

I want to see my Hulu videos, YouTube favorites, and Netflix content on TV. Now, Roku is doing a good job with getting Netflix content on TV. However, the way to get the rest is via your PC. This may be an easy task for us media types but for the common consumer its a exercise in futility. We need a device to manage video over the internet and our other media scenarios such as DVDs, cable, etc. 

One tenet that we must imbibe is that clutter in the living room is a non-starter. i.e. we need to reduce the number of devices not increase it. Women rule the living room design and they hate clutter. Well, we know what guys will do.  To make this happen,  I see a great opportunity in co-tailing on the Blu-ray players.  Consumer have to purchase the percieved winner in the HD DVD world, its price point is coming down (below $200 is the tipping point for mass consumer adoption). If folks like Hulu, Netflix, YouTube tie in with Blu-ray device manufacturers, they have a perfect entry into the consumer's living room. 

Of course, the other entry is via the gaming devices such as Xbox, Wii, and Playstation. Microsoft has already put its IPTV player in XBox, so we know where they are heading. 

The other option is to have the Cable guys do it but given my work with Cable guys, I dont think they have the aptitude or will to make such a device.

Video Platform

Online video is seeing phenomal growth, we all know that. There is a saying with ol' video hands and it goes  - "video is only 6 months away from taking over the world" and we have been saying that for the past 10 years!  But I do feel that we are reaching the tipping point for many reasons - 

1. The growth of broadband speeds. Cable now offers 6Mbps as a the default speed. 
2. Content companies are getting more open to sharing content online, see the growth of Hulu.
3. And above all, the audience is watching more hours online. Watch the teenage and 18-25 demo. These guys will change the viewing habits going forward. 

So, video is now a ubiquitous element on all sites, on par with text and images. How are publishers going to incoporate ever growing needs for video. They can either use paid services such as Brightcove, Ooyala, and others. Or try open source options such as Pandastream. 

I'm curious about experiences with Pandastream and other open source video platforms. If you've worked with them, drop me a line....

Video stream count - total streams or monetizable videos

Wanted to share my thoughts on video stream measurement. Today we have companies like comScore give us a tally of total stream count for US. This puts sites such as YouTube way ahead of others (45% stream share). But we've all heard about monetization woes at YouTube, and that's a result of brands not being comfortable putting their ads against unknown and potentially illegal video. The number we should be tracking is "monetizable" videos, i.e. the % of videos that can be legibly monetized. Its not very easy to determine this percentage but keeping track of number of partner videos in a site is a start. Using this measure, the percentage of monetizable videos on YouTube drops dramatically. According to some reports it is between 3-5% of their total videos!

Will the economic slowdown impact internet and video ad spending

Everyone is talking about - we are in a financial mess! So, will it severly impact internet ad spend, specifically video ads? I'm not so sure. I recently read an article on HBS talking about the fact that the drop may be much worse for traditional media vs. online world. The logic is quite simple - marketers will be pushed to reduce their media budgets, today the spend is around $70B on TV (network & broadcast), so as to keep the marketing impact the same with lower spend, they may move more monies into the online world. This may be especially true for online video market.
It remains to be seen if this is true but lets track this closely.