January 9, 2008

Does Online Video Pose A Threat To TV Networks?

A big topic of conversation in the world of television and media for the past few months has been the Hollywood Writer's Strike and what it could mean for the development of online video in 2008. Forbes had a little chat with Dan York, chief of content strategy and acquisitions for AT&T that revealed some interesting little conversational tidbits for those interested in the developing world of digital media.

The main questions asked: Will Hollywood go the free download route or will they populate subscription services on the web? Or will networks continue to run the show? The conversation shed some light on a fact that few of us bother to remember when fantasizing about web video, that being that the networks dictate where and when Hollywood airs their content, and cables, satellites, and networks control two-thirds of current content distribution. That's a pretty big hurdle for online video to overcome.

To put into perspective, York gave an example of a "major production network" that aired a show which registered 11 million viewers over 3 airing via cable and satellite. When the same show was put online for free, it only registered 62000 viewers over 3 days. Definitely not alot of money from 62000 views, at least not when compared to 11 million.

Things will change, though as the living room continues to evolve and the internet is brought to our HDTV's. That's when we'll start seeing the real evolution of online video.

Via Forbes