The Pew Institute's new report on video-sharing hasn't many surprises for anyone attentive to our have-camera, will-shoot world. We're watching more video online than ever, we're sharing it more than ever, and the rate of increase (doubling in one year) indicates that enough time is being spent on the activity to erode conventional media, likely TV most of all. The only question is how soon video-sharing will become the new normal of viewership.
Online video viewing could follow several paths at the same time. 1) The small screen (youtube size) that is a quick easy to digest hit, that leverages user generated content, and video mashups.
2) The other is a high quality viewing experience delivered through the internet (IPTV), Traditional TV with a twist. The twist being interactive features both editorial and advertising related (chat, importing twitter feeds, the list is endless) that allow for a rich user experience.
I suspect the large scale media companies are looking to 2) one solution in the erosion in viewer ship.
Sony bought a web site Grouper and re-branded it http://crackle.com. They bought Grouper for $65 million when it was getting 500,000 uniques a month, clearly a technology play..
We are going to see more of these especially in 2008.
We are seeing a fragmentation of the audience. What the You Tube environment does (apart from the uploading and sharing tools) is to reveal the backstage scene for all-comers.
What YouTube does so brilliantly is is engage you, in real-time, for just how active a video is. regardless of content.
The layers for 'view', 'rating' 'favoriting' et all are the real juice behind the network. The kind of data that publishers and broadcasters secret away, hoard and sell is on display for every piece of content put in that environment.
That's the veil that has been lifted in the new landscape.
So the central question for established media remains: what's to be gained by by putting the user in charge of the experience? And, what's to be earned by transparency?
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