Why the pro-sumer can now compete with the networks...

First a few facts...while most people still watch most programming on their TV, a four-year analysis of Internet use have found that 47% of time online is currently spent viewing content as opposed to 33% of that time spent for communication purposes. This is significant because 4 years ago, those numbers were reversed. This shows that viewers of content are more and more using the web as a respected delivery tool for online video.

Powerful production tools have been at the hands of the pro-sumer for quite some time, and quite a bit of talent is being discovered as a result. Distribution has been another story with every site requiring different specifications for upload, making the task a laborious one.

And lets not forget how everyone is trying to get paid for their efforts...via advertising. Advertisers & sponsors price the value of programming against the amount of viewers. Before now there was no easy way for a small publisher to aggregate all of their viewers across multiple distribution points on the web, other than counting them manually. This left advertisers to question the math behind the numbers. Now things are about to change.

Online video distribution and analytics tools that allow undiscovered talent to distribute and measure the success of their programming throughout the web are beginning to emerge. These types of tools will become the great equalizers, as small publishers are able to more easily distribute their content to all of the major online video portals, while tracking the numbers through an impartial 3rd party.

The new, online video publishing tools are now offering one stop shopping for distribution, bundled up with analytics tools to enable programmers to more easily track their fan base.

Tubemogul: http://www.tubemogul.com/
Vidmetrix: http://www.vidmetrix.com/

Or how about a budding local news journalist being able to broadcast live with little more than a laptop, web-cam and internet connection. Now they can with Mogulus: http://www.mogulus.com

To compete with the networks is no easy feat, given their infrastructure and the dollars they place behind advertising their own shows. But at the end of the day it is all about the quality of the idea, and new ideas tend to come from the ground up, not the top down.

All this makes it much more likely that the next 'Sopranos' will be an online show, and that that show has a high likelihood of being brought to you by someone other than a major network.

For those of you that think that watching video content over the internet is for the few or decades away...a few more facts.

IPTV subscription video revenue will grow exponentially from $779 million in 2006 to $26.3 billion by 2011 not including advertising and value-added TV services, and 1 in 5 broadband homes will have the technology to watch internet-based video on their TV sets by the end of 2007. Over 72 million broadband homes – representing over two-thirds of the marketplace – are projected to have PC/TV devices by 2017.

ComScore's Video streaming reports:
• Online viewers watched an average of 158 minutes of streaming video per streamer.
• The average video stream duration was 2.5 minutes.
• Nearly three out of four (74.3 percent) U.S. Internet users streamed video online.
• More than one out of three (35 percent) U.S. Internet users use YouTube.
• The average online video viewer consumed 63 video streams (more than two per day).

Adobe’s Flash Player, YouTube, Apple’s QuickTime are all planning on being fully H.264 (HD) compatible this year.

The bottom line is that this will all make for a much more competitive marketplace. One that will keep the networks on their toes, while giving the little guy a real chance to compete...