The question is who is in a better position to service the largest shift in how brands communicate? Traditional Advertising or the Entertainment and Media industries.
The convergence of the internet and traditional TV, social networking, blogs, vlogs, widgets & Googles have changed everything. With the ability for anyone to publish, consumers no longer have the patience for traditional 'push' advertising messaging. They have been given the controls, and are unlikely to give them back. The brands that connect in the future will be those that can do more than just get involved in the conversation with their audience, but those that produce something of value for them. Whether that be in the form of information, education, software, games, social networking or via entertainment properties.
This has naturally started a race between the traditional advertising agencies and the media/entertainment industry to see who will best be able to service this shift.
The agencies own the brand relationships and know best how to engage the brands in order to deliver marketing solutions against product & brand strategies. The agencies also know how to execute across multiple mediums, but media fragmentation has slowed them down and they can no longer execute efficiently. What they cannot understand or execute, they buy, but fail to assimilate - which eventually cripples the integrated offerings they have struggled so hard to create. They are also losing the trust of their clients as they struggle to keep up with digital media along with creating a convincing & authentic narrative which ultimately delivers authentic audience engagement.
Media and Entertainment have the opposite problem. They know how to deliver engagement across media platforms but lack the experience of creating strategic, bespoke solutions for brands across multiple markets. They know they need to move away from being realtors of space and time, but they are hampered by their sales departments who are holding onto age old relationships with.....gasp.....the agencies!
As I look for my next opportunity, I also struggle for clarity on who will be the winner. Perhaps that is the wrong way to look at it. Perhaps there will be no winner, or loser. Perhaps the two sides need to realize what the other's strengths are and partner to service this revolutionary transformation. If so, what will this mean? Should agencies rid themselves of creative departments and focus on strategy, media and local market implementation, while entertainment focuses on content, a dialogue, transparency, personal expression, experience, reinvention, connection via audience participation and integration?
Whatever the solution it is certain to shake our industries to their core.
At every industry event I attend, questions along these lines addressed to the panelists in the spotlight spawn answers fraught with the political undertones of a presidential race that are about as clear as fog. A clear sign that change is afoot, leadership is scarce, and the shake-up is just getting started.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Software is a new form of media!
Widgets...those pesky little viral applications that spread...well...like a virus, hunting you down via email while simultaneously polluting your Facebook page. Gosh-darn-it, some of these applications are damn useful, like CareerBuilder that allows me to track the emerging job market in Asia, or Qloud that enables me to stream all of my friend's music for free. I mean, EVERYONE has Funwall! It won't be long before the Funwalls of the world are brought to us by brands like Staples or OfficeMax. Anyone send an Elf-Yourself greeting last year? Elf-Yourself widget anyone? Sure beats another vampire bite! Anyone know what I am talking about? Make sense?
So, what does this all mean? First off, the smart brands have finally acknowledged that they have to bring value to consumers in order to build the relationships they crave. But are they ready to move to the next step? Building software.
The notion of building value via software takes on a larger psychological & sociological shift in the way we view media and how we connect with consumers. Marketers have had to literally pay their way into the public space via the media buy, but what if they were invited in by the consumer - which would be nothing short of a sociological revolution! This is waaaay bigger than the 'Pull' vs. 'Push' strategy. Imagine if Brand communications were as valuable as the products and services that we, the consumer, are willing to pay for...a brand extension of sorts. A new 'soft' SKU?
Think about it? Brands have access to API's like any other developer. There is nothing stopping them from developing applications that will allow them unfettered and free distribution to the audiences of Facebook, Netvibes or the iPhone for example.
Now, I am sure that if Brands did start to go for this in a big way, that the Facebooks of the world would charge them a tariff of sorts. But in this world content is king and if a Brand is truly delivering something valuable to the platform's viewer base, it suddenly has bargaining power...much more than it has ever had in the past.
This is what Steve Ballmer means when he talks about the fact that the lines between media and software are blurring.
Confused?...log onto Facebook and make sure you get a vampire bite. The effects are immediate and the transformation is forever lasting.
So, what does this all mean? First off, the smart brands have finally acknowledged that they have to bring value to consumers in order to build the relationships they crave. But are they ready to move to the next step? Building software.
The notion of building value via software takes on a larger psychological & sociological shift in the way we view media and how we connect with consumers. Marketers have had to literally pay their way into the public space via the media buy, but what if they were invited in by the consumer - which would be nothing short of a sociological revolution! This is waaaay bigger than the 'Pull' vs. 'Push' strategy. Imagine if Brand communications were as valuable as the products and services that we, the consumer, are willing to pay for...a brand extension of sorts. A new 'soft' SKU?
Think about it? Brands have access to API's like any other developer. There is nothing stopping them from developing applications that will allow them unfettered and free distribution to the audiences of Facebook, Netvibes or the iPhone for example.
Now, I am sure that if Brands did start to go for this in a big way, that the Facebooks of the world would charge them a tariff of sorts. But in this world content is king and if a Brand is truly delivering something valuable to the platform's viewer base, it suddenly has bargaining power...much more than it has ever had in the past.
This is what Steve Ballmer means when he talks about the fact that the lines between media and software are blurring.
Confused?...log onto Facebook and make sure you get a vampire bite. The effects are immediate and the transformation is forever lasting.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
The end of pre-roll ads...finally!
(Play the video above to see)
Finally, the players in online video are adapting to the fact that the way in which we interact with video online is completely different from our experience with linear TV. More specifically, most users are turning away from video with pre-roll advertising. It could be the fact that most pre-rolls are commercials made for TV placed in front of short form content, but I don't think so. This is a very different medium and our time is most often limited when viewing content.
The most recent solution seems to be pop-up type banners at the bottom of the video window while the content keeps playing. You can wait for the pop-up to go away, or you can close them right away. You also have the option to scroll through even more of them. Funnily enough I found myself doing this because the banners were relevant to what I had chosen to watch. Was it because I am in the industry? It may be, but I found myself doing it at points I was bored with the content of the video itself. The lesson here is if you give the user the power to interact, they will use it. In this case it works to the ADVANTAGE of the advertiser. WOW!
Maven.net and YouTube are the largest adopters of this approach, but others will quickly follow.
YouTube has also added to both its Custom and AdSense players. These are players that you can build with content of your choosing in order to post on any site or blog that you want, including content from the major networks. It is truly a revelation to see content from the major networks with NO pre-roll advertising, but pop-ups instead - knowing that this is likely to set a very real precedent. The small pop-ups offer a terrific alternative to traditional advertising, with the option of linking to a commercial or any other content that an advertiser wants to share with us if we WANT to see it.
...but wait a minute, does this really matter?....I mean, most people still watch TV right?
Yes, BUT this year almost 16% of American internet users watched full-length television shows online, according to a new report released by The Conference Board and TNS. This is double the amount recorded last year. Personal convenience and commercial avoidance were the two top motivating factors. Nearly 73 percent of online households said they use the internet for entertainment purposes on a daily basis and an additional 15 percent search for entertainment several times a week.
From all of this you can only draw a few simple conclusions. Once the convergence of TV and the internet is fully realized, commercials will most likely disappear in their current :30 & :60 forms. Why? Because our habits are being driven by our fast-changing relationship with interactivity, and the web is leading the way.
The transformation is happening sooner than you think; so agencies, brands and media owners who don't adapt...beware! Time to seriously start dismantling those big TV ad shops and figure out what content consumers will ask for...figure out how to get your clients to bring value to their customers through these much more valuable new forms of interactivity.
...and please STOP asking me if you can just place those :30's on the web...NO!
If you think this warning is dramatic or out of touch...know that I HAD to add the word 'ad' into the title of this blog as a senior executive from a major agency whom I was in a meeting with last week did NOT know what 'pre-roll' meant. SCARY!...but SADLY true...
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Mobile content up for grabs...
Just when you thought you knew who would be responsible for bringing mobile content to market...you were wrong.
More and more the shift to deliver content over mobile devices is falling to the handset makers. Competition amongst handset makers has become so fierce that manufacturers fight for favor with the carriers for ways to better feature their devices. Carriers ask the handset makers to throw in products and services other than the usual manufacturer rebate in order to help the carrier sell the device, in addition to allowing the carrier to mark up these services at an added profit margin for themselves.
Make no mistake - this is a big deal as it is akin to television set manufacturers getting involved in the development of the content.
Take a look at Nokia's public entree into the content creation and delivery space at: http://www.ovi.com
At launch the service will primarily focus on services surrounding online photo sharing, map services, music delivery & gaming.
Sprint has also launched Sprint Exclusive Entertainment, the first wireless TV network to be produced in house by a major U.S. carrier. http://www.sprint.com/landings/see/?id8=vanity:see
This is also a big opportunity for Brands to participate in the development of the content as the handset makers look for valuable, household name partners in order to lower their risk as they enter this new market.
Everyone knows mobile content will be big business. Some regions of the world have developed faster than others due to technological advancement, ubiquitous standards or simply lifestyle differences. Whatever market you are in, the delivery of content over a mobile device will be yet another service that we will not be able to live without.
More and more the shift to deliver content over mobile devices is falling to the handset makers. Competition amongst handset makers has become so fierce that manufacturers fight for favor with the carriers for ways to better feature their devices. Carriers ask the handset makers to throw in products and services other than the usual manufacturer rebate in order to help the carrier sell the device, in addition to allowing the carrier to mark up these services at an added profit margin for themselves.
Make no mistake - this is a big deal as it is akin to television set manufacturers getting involved in the development of the content.
Take a look at Nokia's public entree into the content creation and delivery space at: http://www.ovi.com
At launch the service will primarily focus on services surrounding online photo sharing, map services, music delivery & gaming.
Sprint has also launched Sprint Exclusive Entertainment, the first wireless TV network to be produced in house by a major U.S. carrier. http://www.sprint.com/landings/see/?id8=vanity:see
This is also a big opportunity for Brands to participate in the development of the content as the handset makers look for valuable, household name partners in order to lower their risk as they enter this new market.
Everyone knows mobile content will be big business. Some regions of the world have developed faster than others due to technological advancement, ubiquitous standards or simply lifestyle differences. Whatever market you are in, the delivery of content over a mobile device will be yet another service that we will not be able to live without.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
New Opportunities In PR!
As we know, PR is essentially all about creating press coverage in one form or another for a client via established media relationships.
Measuring the value paid towards PR has always been a challenge with no guarantee of media coverage. And what about the effectiveness of coverage? For the most part this never happens in any accountable form.
PR does not have to be this way.
Armed with a good SEO strategy, marketers and content creators can reach the consumer directly provided value is being created. Is that not what PR is all about anyway? Today, digital media has broken down the walls protected by the major media companies allowing anyone to publish content. So why not PR?
As a PR professional you have the power to self-publish any message in ways that may ultimately prove to be way more target-able, powerful and measurable. In an age of DVR's and VOD, no one likes to watch advertising and they don't. The trick is in providing content that is valuable for your audience, much in the same way that good press coverage provides information that we all want to read and be informed about. It's all about knowing your audience and being authentic.
If you are looking to seed content to mainstream digital media for use within their offerings, make sure you keep this new medium in mind. This is NOT TV. Keep content to 15 to 20 second snippets as journalists are not inclined to use video that requires extra editing for example.
If you are a non believer, here are a few stats for you:
One in five broadband homes will have the technology to watch internet-based video on their TV sets by the end of 2007, according to a new analysis from Emerging Media Dynamics. The report assesses the progress made by devices such as Apple TV, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and SlingMedia's SlingCatcher in solving the final "twenty foot" barrier. Over 72 million broadband homes – representing over two-thirds of the marketplace – are projected to have PC/TV devices by 2017.
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, according to a new report from market intelligence firm iSuppli.
A new Bivings Research survey of the U.S.'s top 100 newspaper sites found video to be more of a central component of its content. About 92% of paper sites now offer video (up from 61% in 2006). Within this group, 39 sites offer original video content, 26 use AP's video service and 13 offer video content from local news outlets.
Clearly times they are a changin'. So don't sit back waiting for mainstream media. Take your story into your own hands and self publish.
For additional insight, I recommend you read:
Video Rocks Traditional PR
http://www.prnewsonline.com/digitalpr/casestudies/videorocks.html
Healthy Video Snacks - Shelly Palmer
http://www.shellypalmerblog.com/?p=465
While I primarily focus on innovation in online video and IPTV within this blog, there are of course many new formats to be mastered and monitored in PR such as blogs (written & video), wikis & social media solutions to name a few.
Measuring the value paid towards PR has always been a challenge with no guarantee of media coverage. And what about the effectiveness of coverage? For the most part this never happens in any accountable form.
PR does not have to be this way.
Armed with a good SEO strategy, marketers and content creators can reach the consumer directly provided value is being created. Is that not what PR is all about anyway? Today, digital media has broken down the walls protected by the major media companies allowing anyone to publish content. So why not PR?
As a PR professional you have the power to self-publish any message in ways that may ultimately prove to be way more target-able, powerful and measurable. In an age of DVR's and VOD, no one likes to watch advertising and they don't. The trick is in providing content that is valuable for your audience, much in the same way that good press coverage provides information that we all want to read and be informed about. It's all about knowing your audience and being authentic.
If you are looking to seed content to mainstream digital media for use within their offerings, make sure you keep this new medium in mind. This is NOT TV. Keep content to 15 to 20 second snippets as journalists are not inclined to use video that requires extra editing for example.
If you are a non believer, here are a few stats for you:
One in five broadband homes will have the technology to watch internet-based video on their TV sets by the end of 2007, according to a new analysis from Emerging Media Dynamics. The report assesses the progress made by devices such as Apple TV, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and SlingMedia's SlingCatcher in solving the final "twenty foot" barrier. Over 72 million broadband homes – representing over two-thirds of the marketplace – are projected to have PC/TV devices by 2017.
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, according to a new report from market intelligence firm iSuppli.
A new Bivings Research survey of the U.S.'s top 100 newspaper sites found video to be more of a central component of its content. About 92% of paper sites now offer video (up from 61% in 2006). Within this group, 39 sites offer original video content, 26 use AP's video service and 13 offer video content from local news outlets.
Clearly times they are a changin'. So don't sit back waiting for mainstream media. Take your story into your own hands and self publish.
For additional insight, I recommend you read:
Video Rocks Traditional PR
http://www.prnewsonline.com/digitalpr/casestudies/videorocks.html
Healthy Video Snacks - Shelly Palmer
http://www.shellypalmerblog.com/?p=465
While I primarily focus on innovation in online video and IPTV within this blog, there are of course many new formats to be mastered and monitored in PR such as blogs (written & video), wikis & social media solutions to name a few.
Monday, September 10, 2007
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...
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...
Monday, July 09, 2007
IPTV is finally here...
All of a sudden the technology and GUI experience of being able to watch TV via the internet is upon us. I'm not talking about YouTube or the multitude of UGC sites with a small video window and endless amounts of mindless (yet often entertaining) content.
I'm talking about the fact that most of the major networks hit shows are available to stream online whenever we want to see them. Most are also able to do so in a full screen format.
Accompanying the networks are technologies from both new and veteran technology companies. They are doing deals with all of the major networks and are able to stream this content via the web and serve it up in an on-demand model, full screen and over a standard internet connection. They are like virtual versions of the cable companies that we know of today.
...EXCEPT, they're FREE!
Now don't get too excited, because all that FREE stuff means we still have to watch commercials as someone has to pay for the content. But SO WHAT, we watch commercials now and that is not about to change. What will change is the shape and form in which these sponsorship messages arrive. Some of these new services come with DVR-like capabilities, allowing you to...skip commercials.
But all this is great news. It means we are getting closer to a true on-demand content model. One that may bypass out traditional cable operators, and one that will push brands and their marketing agencies to get off their asses and create compelling content that their clients customers actually want to watch.
Now, most of this content will also be pushed out to multiple devices which will also revolutionize the ad model as we know it. Technologies like Visible World will enable advertisers to push out different versions of a commercial on-the-fly depending on what device is being served at the time.
http://www.visibleworld.com/homepage.php
While things are moving faster than any one of us in the industry imagined, true adoption won't take place until the traditional networks can more easily push their content out to the web, and web content creators are able push to their content to the big screen.
There are also major hurdles for the IPTV delivery companies as they try to figure out what their business model moving forward will be. They face major competition from new entries into this marketplace as the barrier to entry is low given the fact that, unlike the traditional cable companies, there are no infrastructure costs into the home & no licenses to acquire. Basically, anyone with access to money can develop a similar solution and get it up in a fairly short period of time, as Joost found out after the release of Veoh's full-screen player. Many of these companies rely on hosted solutions as their bread and butter money, but peer to peer has proven that this is not the most efficient way to serve video and the costs soon outweigh what you can charge.
What will set these companies apart is content and their ability to quickly sign up the best of the networks in order to get the best following. The problem here is that the networks will NOT be giving exclusivity to anyone. The only option left for them at the end of the day will be to start to create and own their own content as the emerging, traditional networks had to do. Without this, they are purely a commodity play.
For more information or to sign up to be part of the Beta Testing programs of some of these IPTV companies:
Joost: On-DemandTV from major networks on your computer-full screen. (http://www.joost.com)
Veoh: On-DemandTV from major networks on your computer-full screen. (http://www.veoh.com/veohTV/veohTvIntro.html)
Microsoft's LiveStation: On-DemandTV from major networks with the added ability to actually display live TV on your computer-full screen. (http://beta.livestation.com/)
If you want a more in-depth view at how quickly this has been evolving, read two blogs that I wrote within the past year on related subjects:
The death of the networks...and what is a channel anyway?
http://web.mac.com/jaredhendler/iWeb/smashtube/smashblog/2DF1DDEB-1160-45DD-AE83-E0EBD17617B3.html
The New Syndicators...Googled again?
http://web.mac.com/jaredhendler/iWeb/smashtube/smashblog/F0E3EA09-4E3B-43F2-9AC0-393D1542422F.html
I'm talking about the fact that most of the major networks hit shows are available to stream online whenever we want to see them. Most are also able to do so in a full screen format.
Accompanying the networks are technologies from both new and veteran technology companies. They are doing deals with all of the major networks and are able to stream this content via the web and serve it up in an on-demand model, full screen and over a standard internet connection. They are like virtual versions of the cable companies that we know of today.
...EXCEPT, they're FREE!
Now don't get too excited, because all that FREE stuff means we still have to watch commercials as someone has to pay for the content. But SO WHAT, we watch commercials now and that is not about to change. What will change is the shape and form in which these sponsorship messages arrive. Some of these new services come with DVR-like capabilities, allowing you to...skip commercials.
But all this is great news. It means we are getting closer to a true on-demand content model. One that may bypass out traditional cable operators, and one that will push brands and their marketing agencies to get off their asses and create compelling content that their clients customers actually want to watch.
Now, most of this content will also be pushed out to multiple devices which will also revolutionize the ad model as we know it. Technologies like Visible World will enable advertisers to push out different versions of a commercial on-the-fly depending on what device is being served at the time.
http://www.visibleworld.com/homepage.php
While things are moving faster than any one of us in the industry imagined, true adoption won't take place until the traditional networks can more easily push their content out to the web, and web content creators are able push to their content to the big screen.
There are also major hurdles for the IPTV delivery companies as they try to figure out what their business model moving forward will be. They face major competition from new entries into this marketplace as the barrier to entry is low given the fact that, unlike the traditional cable companies, there are no infrastructure costs into the home & no licenses to acquire. Basically, anyone with access to money can develop a similar solution and get it up in a fairly short period of time, as Joost found out after the release of Veoh's full-screen player. Many of these companies rely on hosted solutions as their bread and butter money, but peer to peer has proven that this is not the most efficient way to serve video and the costs soon outweigh what you can charge.
What will set these companies apart is content and their ability to quickly sign up the best of the networks in order to get the best following. The problem here is that the networks will NOT be giving exclusivity to anyone. The only option left for them at the end of the day will be to start to create and own their own content as the emerging, traditional networks had to do. Without this, they are purely a commodity play.
For more information or to sign up to be part of the Beta Testing programs of some of these IPTV companies:
Joost: On-DemandTV from major networks on your computer-full screen. (http://www.joost.com)
Veoh: On-DemandTV from major networks on your computer-full screen. (http://www.veoh.com/veohTV/veohTvIntro.html)
Microsoft's LiveStation: On-DemandTV from major networks with the added ability to actually display live TV on your computer-full screen. (http://beta.livestation.com/)
If you want a more in-depth view at how quickly this has been evolving, read two blogs that I wrote within the past year on related subjects:
The death of the networks...and what is a channel anyway?
http://web.mac.com/jaredhendler/iWeb/smashtube/smashblog/2DF1DDEB-1160-45DD-AE83-E0EBD17617B3.html
The New Syndicators...Googled again?
http://web.mac.com/jaredhendler/iWeb/smashtube/smashblog/F0E3EA09-4E3B-43F2-9AC0-393D1542422F.html
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