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| The eyes have it |
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| Thursday, 12 July 2007 | |
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New studies predict big things for online TV.
According to a new analysis from ABI Research the growing reach of new distribution models will expand the total consumer base of Internet video consumers from roughly 300mn today to nearly 1bn by 2012. This growth will create a demand for new and evolved monetisation models that will help create a multi-billion dollar industry in coming years. Both pay and ad-supported broadband video will flourish is one of the conclusions reached by the ABI study ‘Broadband Video and Internet TV’. “Who pays for video online will largely be determined by who foots the bill through existing models,” says the company’s research director Michael Wolf. “For broadcast television, including prime-time TV content, we anticipate that ad support will be the primary engine of monetisation as this content moves online. Movie content new to the home video window will be largely consumer pay-supported. User-generated content will be ad-supported, as sites such as YouTube and social networking sites make increasing use of content produced by their own online users as a way to drastically increase their inventory of premium advertising opportunities.” ABI reasons that the expanding reach of new syndication networks and video ‘super-portals’ such as Joost, alongside established sites like MySpace, will rapidly grow the total user base for ad-supported video. “We believe that pay-video adoption will grow through sites such as iTunes where consumer hardware platforms create end-to-end user experiences that enable easy access to premium video,” adds Wolf. “The growth of Internet-connected hardware platforms will make direct-download of Internet video to the TV a viable model in coming years.” Will an increase in Internet video consumption have any implications for home networking? You betcha says another new report, this time from electronics value chain analyst iSuppli Corp. That company’s analysis - ‘Home Networking: In Search of a Killer Connection’ - reckons that nearly two-thirds of consumers want their televisions to link to the Internet, a sentiment that will help propel rapid sales growth for network-enabled consumer electronics devices in the coming years. iSuppli says that in line with consumers’ wishes, home networking is migrating beyond its PC-centric beginnings to incorporate a variety of entertainment-oriented consumer-electronics devices, including DVD recorders, cable modems, Digital Televisions (DTVs), multi-room Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), digital media adapters, set-top boxes and video game consoles. Shipments of these network-equipped devices, along with consumer PCs and home network bridges and gateways, are expected to rise to 732.9mn units by 2011, more than triple the 225.3mn that were shipped in 2006. “The awareness and demand for media home networking is growing rapidly among consumers,” said Steve Rago, principal analyst, networking/optical communications for iSuppli. “According to iSuppli’s first-quarter 2007 consumer-demand survey, 61% of respondents ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they wanted the ability to network the Internet to their televisions. Male respondents were even more favorable, with a 71% ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ response.” So, as we said at the beginning, the eyes have it. John Williamson |
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